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All IK SC1UH)1, 



DOMESTICATED 
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



A BRIEF TREATISE UPON THE ORIGIN AND 

DEVELOPMENT OF DOMESTICATED RACES 

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE 

METHODS OF IMPROVEMENT 



BV 

E. DAVENPORT, M.Agr., LL.D. 

PROFESSOR OF TM RF.M M ATOl.OC.Y IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 

DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 

DIRECTOR OF THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 



GINN AND COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK ■ CHICAGO ■ LONDON 



copvri(;ht, 1910, I'.v e. davkxpokt 

ENTERED AT STATIONERS* HALL 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

3 "o-j; 



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Cfte gtticnaum Xixtii 

f.INN AND CliMI'A.NV- I'Kc)- 
I'KlETOkS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



Cci.Aii7:i(;7H 



PREFACE 

-\^ Soon after the appearance of "Principles of Breeding" as 
^ar college textbook, numerous letters came to both the author 
and the publishers, suggesting a volume along similar lines, but 
less technical in treatment and better adapted to the needs of 
high and normal schools, and appealing more specifically to the 
general student. 

These suggestions, together with the growing interest in agri- 
culture both as an occupation and as a subject for instruction 
in schools of various grades, encouraged the production of the 
present volume, which runs along the same general lines as 
" Principles of Breeding," except that more information is 
afforded as to the origin of domesticated races and the source 
of the materials out of which they have been formed, and less 
space is devoted to function and to the more philosophic treat- 
ment of variation and heredity. 

More attention is given also to the general subjects of natural 
selection and the survival of the fittest as shown in the way of 
the wild, — subjects of importance to the high-school student 
as affording the foundation principles for improvement, and 
also as contributing to a more rational understanding of the 
general principles of evolution than commonly exists in the 
popular mind. 

An incidental purpose has been to insure the student of the 
secondary school an acquaintance with the essential facts of re- 
production as illustrated in plant life, and with the foundation 
principles in heredity, especially in degeneracy and crime, as 
illustrated in regression tables and the law of ancestral heredity. 
If the author has been at all successful at this point, the student 
will derive indirectly and by inference, through this study of 



IV DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

animals and plants, a certain knowledge of human relations which 
in all likelihood he would be unable to secure by the method of 
direct instruction, and yet which all thinking people need to 
possess, not only for their- own protection, but for the intelligent 
interpretation of public affairs along sociological lines. 

After all, the main purpose of the book and the main hope 
of the writer is to interest the student in affairs of the farm, 
and to enlist on the part of high schools the same interest in 
the teaching of agriculture and the preparation for the affairs of 
country life as is now exercised in the teaching of other sub- 
jects and the preparation for other phases of life. \\' herever this 
new departure has been made it has been found that the educa- 
tional value of subjects drawn from real life is surprisingly great, 
and the social and economic results are beyond computation. 
The hope to help this work forward has been, perhaps, the chief 
inspiration in the preparation of the following pages. 

EUGENE DAVENPORT 
University of Illinois 
Urbana 



TO THE TEACHER 

This book is so arranged as to be adapted either to a brief 
or to a more extended course of study, a double purpose which 
is accomplished by dividing the subject matter into two parts. 

Part I may be taken alone, constituting a brief course covering 
the essential principles that are fundamental to an understanding 
of hereditary transmission and of the business of plant and 
animal improvement. 

Part II can be employed either as additional text or as refer- 
ence matter, at the option of the teacher, and depending upon 
the time that is available. 

In any case, whatever use is made of Part II, either as text 
or reference, it should be in connection with Part I, and not as 
succeeding it; that is to say. Part II should be taken in con- 
nection with or immediately following the first three chapters 
of Part I, and this use of Part II is highly recommended, be- 
cause here is a collection of information, not commonly avail- 
able, that throws light not only upon the sources of material 
out of which domesticated races have been made, but also upon 
many of the essential steps in improvement. 

The author is especially anxious that the suggestions and ex- 
ercises offered at the close of the chapters be accepted and fol- 
lowed. Each topic affords material full of interesting and 
profitable study, always from the standpoint of utility; and if 
the students will make some independent studies of this kind, 
they will be doubly repaid not only in the wealth of informa- 
tion accumulated, but in the experience gained in independent 
methods of study. 

With the information afforded in the Appendix the teacher 
will be able to introduce the subject of stock judging. This in- 
troduction should be made early and continued throughout the 



vi DOMESTIC A TKI) ANIMALS AM) I'LAM'S 

Study of the text. Almost any neighborhood will afford speci- 
mens entirely suitable for this purpose. 

A glossary of terms will be found convenient in connection 
with both text and reference reading. 

More explicitly, the purpose of the first three chapters is to 
bring out the way in which our domesticated races canic among 
us, and our dependence upon their services. In this connection 
and at this point should come as much as possible of the detailed 
study of separate species as given in Part II. 

The intent of the writer at this point is fourfold : first, to 
arouse interest in the field which affords the subject matter of 
the real discussion ; second, to bring together a body of knowl- 
edge about domesticated animals and plants on which the student 
may rely, making it possible for other chapters to be less con- 
crete and more abstract; third, to connect that body of knowledge 
with the zoology and the botany of the high school ; fourth, to 
give the student some acquaintimce with the behavior of ani- 
mals and plants both in a state of nature and when undergoing 
domestication. 

Chapters V and VI are designed not only to bring out the 
power of selection, but also to give the student some working 
knowledge of the complicated manner in which it operates in 
nature. Both error and bad science abound through the failure 
to distinguish between the facts of nature and the poetic license 
that is often employed by writers who choose nature subjects as 
means of teaching human truths. This kind of anthropomor- 
phism we may wink at, if we understand what is meant when 
animals are made to talk and trees and flowers to think ; but we 
cannot forgive that kind of pseudoscience wherein, though the 
purpose of the writer is plainly to teach the facts of nature, )-et 
the facts are either badly distorted or incompletely conveyed. 

In Chapter VII the distinct purpose is to draw the attention 
away from the animal or plant as an individual and direct it to 
the more or less independent units of which it is composed. 
A train of cars seen at a distance looks like a single unit, but 



TO THE TEACHER vii 

when more closely examined it is found to consist not only of 
engine and of separate cars, but also of wheel and axle, brake 
and drawbar. The whole is actuated by the energy of the coal and 
controlled by intelligence, acting through steam and compressed 
air, by means of lever brake and bell cord. 

Chapter VIII introduces a brief study of the variability of a 
single character, and it serves not only to fix conceptions as to 
type, but as an introduction to statistical methods of study now 
much employed in the problems of breeding. This chapter will 
afford material for an exceedingly valuable class of problems, 
and its mastery is especially urged. 

In Chapter IX the attempt is made to convey the essential 
facts of reproduction and lay the foundation for the study of 
heredity through the medium of the plant. The hope is that 
here and in Chapters X and XI more is taught by inference 
than is taught directly. It has been a secondary aim of the 
author to convey knowledge and make impressions that are 
applicable to certain human relations as well as to the subject 
in hand, but which from the nature of the case cannot be 
conveyed by the direct method. 

Chapters XI and XII are designed to teach rational notions 
of descent and to correct the prevalent notion that heredity in 
some way fails unless the offspring is a duplicate of the parent. 
The old dogma that like begets like, and that the offspring is 
like the parent, is modified to read, " The offspring is like the 
parentage," and the succeeding chapter deals with the distri- 
bution of hereditary family qualities through the various mem- 
bers of the back ancestry. It is hoped that the careful study of 
these chapters will prepare the student for the real behavior of 
characters in transmission, and will enable him to comprehend 
both regression and progression, as well as reversion and de- 
generacy. It will also serve to show that transmission and 
heredity are complicated, not simple, facts. 

Chapter XIV discusses the relative influences of heredity and 
environment, a discussion that is useful from the standpoint 



viii DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

of breeding, and even more so from the standpoint of human 
experience, particularly when we take into account the popular 
confusion of mind on these two points. The average student, 
noting the powerful influence of environment in the develop- 
ment of inherited tendencies, is likely not to fully realize that 
the environment is powerless except when the possibilities are 
presented by heredity. A study of this chapter should help to 
clear the mind of the student on this point. 

Chapter XV is designed to acquaint the student with some 
of the practical facts and problems connected with the actual 
improvement of animals, and is frankly admitted as designed 
to stimulate interest in grading. 

Chapter XVI, dealing with plants, is intended to make the 
methods of improvement still more familiar and to stimulate a 
desire to take a hand in its trial, which, if seriously undertaken, 
will be found not only interesting but highly educative. 

Chapters XVII-XXI deal with the origin of domesticated 
races, and are designed as supplementary text or as reference 
matter, according to the needs of the school. 

Any good high school may undertake something definite in 
the way of animal and plant studies with reference to practical 
improvement. The principles laid down in the text and the dis- 
cussion are ample to enable it to do so, if teacher and pupil 
alike are so disposed, and the school may, if it will, become a 
force in the neighborhood. 

First of all, it should have a little land on which at least a 
collection of common plants may be studied. A vacant lot in 
the city or a corner of a field in the country will answer, but a 
definite piece of land near the school, set aside for the purpose, 
is more desirable than either. 

With the growing interest in agriculture, the best schools are 
being provided not with a farm which they do not need, but 
with a field of five to ten acres for experimental and demon- 
stration purposes, which they do need. This work may well 
occupy a place in such a field. 



TO THE TEACHER ix 

At the least let the school study variability. This may be 
done advantageously with four classes of cultivated plants, 
namely, flowers, garden vegetables, small fruits, and farm crops. 

Of the first, pansies, petunias, sweet peas, and hollyhocks are 
well adapted to the purposes ; of vegetables, the best are pota- 
toes and squashes; of small fruits, strawberries and raspberries; 
and of farm crops, none is better than corn, though wheat, oats, 
timothy, and clover all exhibit pronounced variations. 

In some of these cases variability may be conveniently in- 
creased by crossing, as with the sweet pea, hollyhock, squash, 
and corn ; and in the potato and strawberry an endless supply 
of new strains may be had by planting the seeds. 

If at all possible, this study of variability should be accompanied 
by attempts at improvement, which is especially easy with flowers 
and not at all impossible with such crops as potatoes and corn. 

Large animals are, for the most part, out of reach of the 
operations of the school, except as it can draw upon the farm 
animals of the neighborhood, which everywhere afford material 
practically unlimited, both in numbers and variety. 

There is no more favorable material for study, however, than 
chickens, and a small poultry plant is entirely feasible and in 
every way desirable in connection with the school. 

It is fundamental that some one be definitely charged with 
the responsibility and care of any and all plants and animals 
kept for school purposes. This responsibility and care may 
properly devolve upon the same party who cares for the 
building and the grounds. 

It may seem to some that to do work of this sort, and to study 
matters of this kind, is not the proper function of the school, 
and that its advocacy is a passing fancy. To such, let the author 
say that a new era is upon us, — an era in which at least a por- 
tion of the time and energ)^ of the schools must be devoted to 
useful things, and to none more properly than to the industry 
of agriculture, which directly engages the lives of one third of 
our population and provides food for all the people. 



CONTENTS 



PART I 

THE MEANING OF DOMESTICATED RACES AND THE 
MANNER OF THEIR IMPROVEMENT 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Dependence of Man upon Domesticated Animals 

AND Plants 3 

Animals and plants as sources of food — As sources of cloth- 
ing — As sources of shelter — Vegetable products as sources 
of heat and light — Dependence of man upon animal labor — 
Animals a means of recreation — Animals and plants as sources 
of raw material for manufacturing purposes — Medicinal prop- 
erties of animals and plants — The business of farming 

II. Domesticated Races originated in the Wild ... 11 

Domesticated races vary — Creation not yet finished — Most 
domesticated races have close relatives in the wild — Domesti- 
cated species existed first in the wild — Species change in domes- 
tication — Improvement sometimes slight — Domestication a 
gradual process — IIow the history of domestication is known 

— Not always able to identify the original — Distinction between 
feral and wild 

III. How Animals and Plants came to be Domesticated 20 

Domestication the result of necessity — Need for help in the 
hunt — Need for additional food — Need for clothing and shel- 
ter — Need for labor — Domestication the first step in civiliza- 
tion — The civilizing effect of slavery — What animals have 
done for us — Unused materials — Lost possibilities — Domes- 
tication a gradual process — Species that were domesticated 

IV. Need of Improvement in Domesticated Animals 
and Plants 35 

Natural species not perfectly adjusted to our needs — Main- 
tenance of animals costly — Further improvement needed — 
Need of more economic service — Some individuals better 
than others— Economic significance of differences in efficiency 

— The fact of variability established — Variability in a single 
character — Historical knowledge of original species needed 



xii DOMES'l'lCATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

V. The Way of the Wild 50 

The astonishing abundance of Hfe — The struggle for exist- 
ence — Selective effect of the natural conditions — Competition 
for food — Competition for room — Competition most severe 
between individuals of the same species^ Natural selection — 
Survival of the fittest — The individual and the race — Signifi- 
cance of numbers — Significance of vigor and length of life — 
Significance of offensive and defensive weapons — Significance 
of protective coloring and markings — Mimicry — Design in 
nature — Causes of color in animals and plants 

VL Effect of Natural Selection 83 

Natural selection means progressive development — Effect of 
selection upon the individual — Selection good for the species 
that can endure it — Selection fatal to a race that cannot en- 
dure its hardships — Interest of the individual and the race 
not identical — A close fit between a species and its environ- 
ment is inevitable — Apparent exceptions due to absence of 
severe selection — Adaptation not necessarily perfect — Our 
standards of selection differ from those of nature — Not all the 
results of natural selection are useful to us — Our standards 
often require much readjustment of domesticated species — 
Natural selection always at work — Tower of selection to 
modify type 

Vn. Unit Characters 98 

Unit of study — Species composed of definite characters — 
Every individual possesses all the characters of the race — 
Characters developed and characters latent — Characters 
dominant and characters recessive — Correlation of characters 
— Lost characters — New characters — Characters and unit 
characters 

Vin. Variaiulity of a Sinole Character 105 

Critical study of a single character — Types — Plotting the 
frequency curve — The mean — The typical individual — Vari- 
ability or deviation from type — Average deviation — Standard 
deviation — Coefficient of variability — Suggestions as to tak- 
ing measurements — Suggestions as to grouping — Sugges- 
tions as to numbers — Suggestions as to taking samples — 
Advantages of statistical studies 

IX. How Characters are 'rRANSMirrEn 121 

Every species of its own kind — The machinery of transmis- 
sion — P'ertilization — Fertilization in general — The material 
transmitted — Chromosomes — Development, or growth and 
differentiation — Termination to growth 

X. \\'iiEN Development goes Wrong 130 

Differentiation with development — Underdevelopment, or 
dwarfing — Overdevelopment, or giants — Arrested develop- 
ment of a single character or part — Overdevelopment of a 
single part — Doubling of parts — Fusing of parts — \Vhen 
unit characters get misplaced — Abnormal growths 



CONTENTS xiil 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XI. How Characters behave in Transmission . . . .141 

Characters tend to combine in definite mathematical propor- 
tions — Characters that do not blend — Mendel's law of 
hybrids — Dominant and recessive characters — Pure races 
may spring from crossing — Very few individuals pure — A 
second method of improvement — Improvement by hybridiza- 
tion complicated — Mutation and mutants — Origin of new 
and improved strains 

XII. How THE Offspring compares with the Parent, 

OR Descent with Modification 154 

The complex nature of heredity — The offspring not like the 
parent — Mediocrity the common lot, whatever the parentage ; 
regression — Some offspring better and some worse than their 
parents — The exceptional parent and his offspring — Pro- 
gression — The exceptional offspring and his parent — Rever- 
sion — Degeneracy 

XIII. The Law of Ancestral Heredity 166 

The extent to which the offspring resembles the parent and 
the extent to which he resembles more remote ancestors — 
Chance of resembling a particular individual ancestor — The 
individual a composite — The number "two" 

XIV. Heredity and Environment 171 

Mistaken estimate of environment — All the characters of the 
race, both good and bad, are transmitted to the individual by 
his parentage — The function of environment is to assist or 
to hinder in development — Environment does not add unit 
characters — Modifications due to environment 

XV. Systematic Improvement of Animals 178 

Origin of the " pure bred " — Pedigree registers — Advanced 
registry — Unregistered stock and scrubs — Systems of breed- 
ing — Source of sires — Herd improvement and breed im- 
provement — Rational improvement — Choosing the breed — 
Breed differences slight — Market classes and grades — 
Knowledge of market requirements needful 

XVI. Systematic Improvement of Plants 198 

Improvement by selection — Crossing to produce new varieties 

— Application of Mendel's law in crossing — Separation of the 
desired character — Behavior of the recessive — Behavior of 
the dominant — When. more than two characters are involved 

— Systems of planting — Records 



xiv DOMESTICATED ANLMALS AND PLANTS 

PART II 
THE ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED RACES 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVn. Oricin of Domesticatkd Animals 207 

Domesticated mammals — The dog — The horse — The ass 

— The ox — The sheep — The goat — The pig — The cat — 
Domesticated birds — The hen — The goose — The duck — 
The turkey — The peacock — The swan — The guinea fowl 

— Additional races and semidomestication — Unwelcome 
domestication 

XVIII. Oricin of Cultivated Grains and Grasses . . 241 

Cultivated plants, like domesticated animals, originated in the 
wild — Wheat — Harley — Indian Corn — Oats — Rye — Rice 

— Sorghum — Sugar ("ane — Millet — Buckwheat — Timothy 

— ]51ue Crass — Redtop — Orchard grass — The Festucas — 
Miscellaneous grasses 

XIX. Orkhn of the Cultivated Legumes 257 

Clover — Alfalfa — The lentil — The bean — The pea — The 
vetch — The lupine — The soybean — The cowpea 

XX. Orioin of Cultiv'ated Frulfs 267 

The apple — The pear — The plum — The sour cherry — The 
peach — The apricot — The orange and the lemon — The 
banana— The pineapple — The grape — The strawberry — . 
The raspberry — The blackberry — The melon — Miscella- 
neous fruits 

XXI. Orioin of Farm and Garden Vegetables and 

Miscellaneous Plants 285 

The potato — The sweet potato — Miscellaneous tubers — 
Edible Roots — The onion — The beet — Manioc, or mandioca 

— The turnip — Miscellaneous roots — Vegetables cultivated 
for their foliage — Cabbage — Celery — Eettuce — Asparagus 

— Plants cultivated for beverage — Coffee — Tea — Alate — 
riants grown for sedative effect — The poppy — Coca — The 
betel — Tobacco — Fiber plants — Cotton — Hax — Hemp — 
Ornamental plants — Weeds 

Appendix 301 

Glossary 3'- 

Index ' 3'7 



DOMESTICATED 
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



PART I 

THE MEANING OF DOMESTICATED RACES AND 
THE MANNER OF THEIR IMPROVEMENT 

CHAPTER I 

THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN UPON DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 
AND PLANTS 

Animals and plants as sources of food • As sources of clothing • As sources 
of shelter • Vegetable products as sources of heat and light • Dependence of 
man upon animal labor • Animals a means of recreation • Animals and plants 
as sources of raw material for manufacturing purposes • Medicinal properties 
■ of animals and plants • The business of farming 

Few realize the extent of our dependence upon the plant and 
animal life about us, and the variety of ways in which domesti- 
cated animals and cultivated plants have been made to serve the 
interests and forward the plans and purposes of man. 

Animals and plants as sources of food. Aside from air and 
water there is no article of food, common or uncommon, that 
does not come directly from the animal or the plant. 

Meat, milk, and eggs, the three standard animal foods, repre- 
sent the body and its products. Bread, however made, represents 
the starchy seeds of certain plants, and edible oils are invariably 
of either plant or animal origin. 

To these staples we add, for luxury and for health, a great 
variety of fruits and vegetables, not to mention sweets, but they 
all arise from plant life somewhere in the world. 

Most of the food plants are cultivated, and most of the 
animals are domesticated. The savage may live by the hunt, 
but it is one of the first evidences of civilization that a race 

3 



4 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

provides an ample and assured food supply in its domesticated 
animals and cultivated crops. 

To be sure, a certain amount of meat still comes from game 
like the deer and the moose, but the proportion is small and is 
growing smaller every year. The pioneer, like the Indians, de- 
pended largely on the hunt, but the buffalo is extinct and the 
game animals generally are restricted to the protected preserves 
where they linger only by virtue of stringent laws. 

Fish have been strictly undomesticated in the past, but now 
all the promising rivers and lakes are systematically " stocked," 
so that even these lowest of all food animals are almost half 
domesticated, in that they are systematically cared for. Any 
way we stud\- the problem we always arrive at the same conclu- 
sion, name])-, that we are absolutely dependent for food upon 
the products of [)h\nt and animal life. 

Animals and plants as sources of clothing. Primitive man 
clothes himself in skins, like the L^skimo, if he needs their 
warmth, or in grasses, like the I'^iji islander, if he does not. 
Civilized man, however, refining upon savage customs, weaves 
a cloth out of the fiber of the pelt or of the leaf, and cuts him- 
self garments that fit the body and lend themselves to its move- 
ments. In this way the wool of the sheep and the fiber of the 
cotton and the flax furnish the material out of which the world 
clothes itself. 

Aside from furs, and many of these come from lambs and 
from cats, we draw our clothing supply from animals and plants 
living under the direct management and control of man, that 
is, domesticated. The wool of the sheep, the fur of the vicufia, 
and the hair of the llama and the alpaca are all body coverings 
shorn for spinning. The fiber of cotton and of flax represent 
two of our principal crops the world oxer, and the silk that is 
spun by the insignificant worm represents an industry invoh'ing 
thousands of people, millions of worms, and acres of mulberry 
trees. In clothing, therefore, as in food, our supply is mainly 
drawn from domesticated races. 



THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN 5 

Animals and plants as sources of shelter. Such of our ances- 
tors as were fortunate enough to inhabit mountain districts lived 
in caves, but as the more venturesome and ambitious sought 
their fortunes on the plains, where civilization develops, they 
made themselves tents or tabernacles of the skins of animals 
and afterward of woven cloth. Only later were shelters built of 
lumber, bricks, or stone. Our own race has developed its civili- 
zation in habitations made of wood, but with the passing of the 
years and the destruction of natural forests, we shall more and 
more build of indestructible materials not the product of either 
plant or animal life. 

For our furniture and our furnishings, however, we shall 
always be dependent upon both, and we cannot say, even in 
this, that man is independent of the humbler life about him. 
Though in the past his draft for building materials has been 
upon natural supplies and not upon domesticated races, yet the 
attention that is now being given to forestry indicates the neces- 
sity of protecting and renewing the timber supplies in ways that 
amount almost to a domestication of our valuable woods. 

Vegetable products as sources of heat and light. For ages 
wood has warmed the body of suffering man, cooked his food, 
and lifted the shadows from his soul. Not until after the open- 
ing of the twelfth century ^ did we begin to draw upon our coal 
deposits, and not until recent years have petroleum and natural 
gas ranked as heat- and light-producing materials. 

But whether wood or coal, petroleum or gas, all reduce to the 
same ultimate basis, — vegetable growth and the carbon of the 
atmosphere harnessed by the green of the leaf operating under 
the energy of the sun. 

None of these sources of heat is from cultivated plants, but 
the world supply of coal, and therefore of petroleum and gas, is 
limited, so that at no distant day we shall be obliged to secure 
our heat either from the sun direct, from wood growing in 

1 It is supposed that the first charter for mining coal was granted by 
Henry III to Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1239. 



6 DOMESTICA'IKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

cultivated forests, or from alcohol produced by the starchy 
grains and veget^ibles. 

In early days the fat of animals or of plants served for illumi- 
nation, but with petroleum they jxissed, probably forever, out of 
use, and it is more than likely that in respect to illumination we 
shall be independent of iioth animals and plants. 

Dependence of man upon animal labor. To harness the ani- 
mals and put them to work is one of the ])iimitive instincts of 




Fig. I. 'I'lic laiiiiius I'cichcrun stalliuii Hrilliant 
After a painting by the great animal artist Rosa Bonheur 

man, and a book would be recjuired even to outline the thou- 
sand ways in which man has been helped by his dumb com- 
panions, and in which his future happiness inevitably rests upon 
their labors. 

It is the reindeer and the dog that make the jjolar regions 
habitable. It was the ox that traveled the plains and developed 
the Pacific coast in the days of '49. The last of the buffalo gave 
their flesh to feed the workmen that laid the Union Pacific — 
that first mechanical bond between tlie Ivist and the West. 



THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN 7 

It is the horse that has fougiit the wars of the world and won 
out human hberty. Besides this, lie lias broken our prairies, 
sown and harvested our grain, and delivered it to the markets of 
the world. He has carried messages of victory and of sorrow, and 
down to the time of Washington he constituted the fastest mode 
of communication known, if we except only the carrier pigeon. 

If all the animals of the world should die in a single day, the 
disaster in respect to labor would hardly be second to that in 




Fir,. 2. " 1 helped to build the Pikes Peak Railroad." The burro and 

the pack mule afford the best means of transportation over difficult 

mountain trails 

respect to food. We might perhaps turn vegetarian, l5ut if man 
should lose his animal servants, then he himself would at once 
be reduced to a beast of burden in a thousand ways not com- 
monly appreciated or even understood. 

The camel and the pack mule carry civilization into regions 
which would otherwise remain wilderness, and just as the burro 
may be said to have built the Pikes Peak Railroad, so the 
elephant and the water buffalo each has done and is doing its 



8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

distinctive work, without which man would have failed to develop 
his civilization at certain significant points. 

Animals a means of recreation. Wholly aside from the sport 
of hunting, our animal population contributes not a little to the 
diversion and the recreation of man. The old-time tournament ^ 
and the later fox chase ministered to the pleasure sense of man, 
as does the modern horse race. There is no enjoyment more 
exhilarating than driving behind a spirited horse, unless it be 
that primitive pleasure of riding ; and the training of intelligent 
horses to the higher class of service is a business that rises 
to the rank of a fine art. 

Thousands of ponies contribute not only to the health of 
children but also to their pleasure and development, both physi- 
cal and mental, for no experience is better suited to stimulate 
resourcefulness in the child than is the everyday management 
of an animal of the horse kind. 

The business of fancy breeding is a refining kind of enjoy- 
ment that for sheer fascination has no superior. As the 
clay in the hands of the potter, so is a flexible species in the 
hand of the breeder, as is evidenced by a glance at what 
has been done in the breeding of pigeons and of dogs (see 
pp. 93-95), and as will become evident as we proceed with the 
study now in hand. 

Animals and plants as sources of raw material for manufac- 
turing purposes. Animals ma\' be thought to afford but little 
raw material for the manufacturer, but the wool and the skins, 
the bones and the slaughterhouse refuse, all work up into 
valuable material for factory consumption, providing endless 
necessities and even luxuries, from the covering of our hands 
and feet to brushes and combs, buttons and knife handles, 
gelatin and glue. 

Plants and plant products are nearly all submitted to some 
process of manufacture before assuming forms suitable for the 
uses of man, and this affords opportunity for the exercise of 
^ See the story of " Ivanhoe." 



THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN 9 

unlimited employment and skill, not only in design but in 
execution as well. 

When we regard facts such as these and consider the mul- 
titude of purposes to which wood is put, the use of pulp for 
paper, the flouring of grains, the carding and spinning of vege- 
table and animal fibers, then it is that we begin to realize how 
generally and how fully our domesticated animals and plants 
afford what might be called the raw materials of civilization. 

Medicinal properties of animals and plants. It is not only in 
health but also in disease that animals and plants serve our 
needs. Nearly all medicinal preparations are from some species 
of plant, and each has its characteristic action on some portion 
or portions of the body or its functions. 

Certain glands of animals, too, are coming to be much used 
in the preparation of medicines. If the thyroid gland of the 
child, for example, fails to develop, the mental faculties will be 
impaired; but the calamity can be averted by feeding the subject 
with the thyroid substance of the sheep. 

And so in countless ways our lives have come to be bound 
up with those of the animals and plants that we cultivate, and 
our ability to maintain our civilization and insure our continued 
happiness will depend very largely upon the success with which 
we can maintain these animal and plant assistants and cause 
them to minister to our good. 

The business of farming. The systematic and continued pro- 
duction of domesticated animals and plants, insuring a perpetual 
supply of their products, is the business of farming. Considered 
from the individual standpoint, we may like it or not according 
to our natural bent and our like or dislike of animals and the 
handling of crops, but looked at from the racial and economic 
standpoint, there is no more important work for the continued 
welfare of man than that of maintaining a continuous supply of 
plant and animal products. 

Nor is this task a simple one. The supply must be ample 
for an increasing population with increasing needs, although 



lO DOMKSTICATEI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

plant production tends strongly to tlie deterioration of the soil. 
Besides this, both animals and plants must be brought and kept 
up to the highest standard of efficiency, and it is the purpose 
of this book to discuss some of the principles involved in secur- 
ing and maintaining the highest attainable service on the part 
of both animals and plants ; in other words, their systematic 
improvement from the standpoint of usefulness to man. 

This being true, we cannot know too much about them, — 
their nature, their history, and the significant details of their re- 
production and development. Accordingly, first of all, attention 
is invited to tiie source from which they have come down to us. 

Summary. Wc are absolutely dependent upon plant and animal life for 
food, clothing, and heat, and very largely so for light, shelter, labor, recrea- 
tion, medicinal compounds, and the raw material for manufacture. In a very 
large sense man has drafted into his service all other living things which 
seem capable of ministering to his prosperity, thus, if in no other way, 
proving his superiority over all other created beings. 

Exercises. 1. Write essays showing what the horse has done and is 
doing for man. 

2. Write essays showing how we would be affected, and how we would 
get on if we should suddenly be deprived of the cow. 

3. What is the most useful domestic animal in your neighborhood, 
and why ? 

4. What is the most important crop of the locality, and why ? 

5. Calculate the value of all the animals of the United States and of your 
own state, and express it not only in totals but on the per capita basis. 

6. In the same way estimate the annual outj)ut of crops, and compare 
with this the value of our exports. 

7. Do the same for the animal products, meat, milk, and wool. 

8 . Calculate the amount and value of the grain and hay consumed 
annually by our domestic animals, and compare it to the cost of feeding our 
human population. 

Reference. Year-Book, United States Department oi Agriculture. 



CHAPTER II 
DOMESTICATED RACES ORIGINATED IN THE WILD 

Domesticated races vary ■ Creation not yet finished ■ Most domesticated races 
have close relatives in the wild • Domesticated species existed first in the 
wild ■ Species change in domestication • Improvement sometimes slight- 
Domestication a gradual process • How the history of domestication is 
known ■ Not always able to identify the original • Distinction between 

feral and wild 

Whence came our domesticated animals and our cultivated 
plants ? Were our horses, our cattle, our sheep, and our swine 
created in the beginning as they are to-day, or have they de- 
scended from other, older, and somewhat different races ? 
Were they made especially for our benefit, or have we drafted 
them into our service ? 

Were our wheat, our corn, our clover and alfalfa, our apples 
and vegetables, created for the particular delectation of man, 
or have they been discovered and appropriated by him to meet 
his special needs ? 

Were they always as they are now in form and color and 
quality, or have they been developed from preexisting species 
and somewhat changed in the process ? 

Domesticated races vary. The last question is easiest an- 
swered. The domesticated races were not always what they 
are to-day, for many have arisen within recent times and some 
within the recollection of men yet living. For example, the 
Shorthorn cattle were developed in England within the last 
hundred and fifty years, and the trotting horse is an American 
product developed since the Civil War. 

The most common pig of the Mississippi valley is the Poland 
China, which developed in the Miami valley as the Chester 
White developed in Chester County, Pennsylvania. 



12 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Wheat is very old, but corn is relatively new, and the variety 
known as Rile)''s Favorite was produced by James Riley, still 
living at Thornton, Indiana. 

Grapes have been known since the earliest ages, but all the 
varieties growing east of the Rockies have been developed 
since the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, and the most popu- 
lar of all grapes — the Concord — originated within half a mile 
of the old homes of Emerson and of Hawthorne, and close by 
the little brown house where Miss Alcott lived and wrote 
"Little Women." Moreover, the writer has seen the original 
vine still growing by the old home of its originator, Ephraim 
Bell, as he has also seen the original stock from which all our 
navel oranges have sprung.* 

Creation not yet finished. Just as every torrential storm 
brings down tons of rock and soil, changing permanently the 
face of nature; just as the rivers carry this "drift" from the 
uplands, extending the lowlands farther and farther into the sea ; 
just as frost and flood combine to tear down the mountains and 
wear away the hills, so are influences at work everywhere to 
alter more or less permanently the character of the countless 
species of plants and animals that inhabit the earth. 

So the Creator is still at work, and not only the forces of 
nature but man himself works with God in still further improv- 
ing the earth arid the living beings it everywhere supports. It 
is well, then, that man shall learn all he can as to how to oper- 
ate to the best advantage in discharging his part of the labor 
of creation. 

Most domesticated races have close relatives in the wild. 
The most casual observer recognizes the wolf as a kind of first 
cousin to the dog, and the jackal as a poor relation. Domestic 
cattle belong certainly to the same general class of animals as 
the bison and the water buffalo, 

^ It should be understood that the peculiar kind of orange called the navel 
has arisen at many different times and places in the world. Ours originated in 
southern California. 



DOMESTICATED RACES I 3 

Any zoological garden or traveling menagerie will show a 
great variety of animals clearly catlike, and almost every moun- 
tainous country has its native sheep of some kind. 

The zebra and the quagga of the circus suggest the horse, and 
the turkey of the New England forests not only resembles our 
great Thanksgiving bird, but is known to be its direct progenitor.^ 




Fig. 3. The timber wolf a wild relative ot the domestic dog. Specimens at 
the National Park, Washington, 1).C. Courtesy of the Superintendent 

Among plants we have wild oats, timothy, and many kinds 
of clover ; indeed, most of our pasture grasses are truly wild. 
We have also wild strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries, 
wild onions, parsnips, and carrots, and whichever way we turn 
the domesticated animal and plant is found to have a gypsy 
relative in the wild. 



1 For further data on the turkey, see Part II, Chapter XVII. 



14 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Domesticated species existed first in the wild. The j^lain 
inference from all this is that domesticated races originated in 
the wild. This conclusion is abundantly supported by a mass of 
incontrovertible evidence too voluminous for full presentation 
here, showing also that man has appropriated these wild species 
and put them to his service from time to time as he has felt 
the need. Some of this was done so long ago that the manner 
of the domestication is lost in the dim and ancient past, and the 
history of it must be read backwards if it is read at all ; but 
some of it is so recent that the exact record exists both in 
printed literature and in the recollection of men that still walk 
and talk among us. 

The more ancient races such as the dog and the horse, like 
wheat and barley, date from a period long before recorded his- 
tory, and more than likely before the invention of the art of 
writing ; but on the other hand, the American wild grape that 
clambers over the trees and shrubs of the eastern United States 
is known to be the parent of all the cultivated varieties grown 
east of the Rocky Mountains. In the same way most varieties 
of plums trace straight to the thickets of eastern American 
rivers. So again, the gooseberry and the currant, the blackberry 
and the raspberry, in all their varieties have been developed 
from wnld races, and mostly within the last half centur)^, just 
as all the varieties of the rose have arisen from the common 
wildling of the hedges and the hills. IIow this has been done 
and the story of it will develop in the student's mind as we 
come to inquire more specifically into the life history of the 
separate domesticated species. 

Species change in domestication. It is not to be assumed 
that domestieated races are identical with their wild antece- 
dents. On the contrary, in most cases, substantial improvement 
has taken place in domestication, as will be seen whenever a 
domesticated race is comjiared with its nearest wild relative. 

There are many wild apples, but none so rich or so large 
as the best products of our orchards. Most wild oranges are 



DOMESTICATED RACES 



15 



insipid or bitter. One would have to loolv a long time to find 
wild grapes equal to the cultivated sorts. No wild potato has 
ever been found equal to the cultivated either in size or quality. 




Fig. 4. American wild grape, parent of all cultivated varieties growing 
east of the Rocky mountains 

No wild sheep equals the Merino in fineness of fleece or the 
Shropshire in quality of meat, and no wild animal of the cattle 
kind was ever known to give as much milk as the domesti- 
cated cow. 



1() l)()Mi:s IICA l'i:i) .\\IM.\I,S WD I'l.WIS 

Improvement sometimes slight. In a fi-w casi-s (his iinprovc- 
nu'iit is lai' less pronoiiiux'd than in olhiTs. I'Or t'xainpK', (he 
bcsl wild slrawlK'iiics aiul bhuklHTrics aiv undouhh-'dly t'ciual in 
flavor to tlu' i"ul(i\a(i'd, (h()Ui;h far inlrrior in pioductiwness 
and in si/.c. Ilu' (,'a(a\vl)a .ulapi," was tounil wild in Nordi ("aro- 
lina, practically iticntical with i(s pi"cscnt foini, hut it was the 
omI\ \inc of its kind. 

The fur hearing; animals, like most kinds of lish, have never 
In-en doinesdead-d ; indi'cd, i( is an open (|Ues(ion if man could 
main(ain artiiicial ci)ndi(ions (ha( would pii'siT\e in ca|)(i\i(v the 
same ciualit)' of fur attained in (he wild s(a(e. 

Domestication a gradual process. C'i\iliza(ion has dexeloped 
not from one hut from man\' i\-n(ers, and man\' animals and 
plan(s ha\e heiMi domes(ica(ed, no( once, but many times. 
I'Acrv " woods ben' " has had his pel " coon " or crow, and 
every savaj;"c tribe its horde ol doj^s, eaih i^oini; (o the wild 
for what it wantinl. 

Some parts o{ (he world wx'ie ahead of odiers in the j^rocess 
of civilization and also in the business oi domestication. W'iiile 
our own ancestois wcri' chasing the Aiuoch ' in the wilds of 
central I'.urope in Ca'sar's time or lumtiui; (he wiUI boar- in 
(he junkies of (ierman\, .Asia had dexelopeil raix's anti cixiliza- 
lions that had risen, run (heir coiuses, disappeared, and been 
fori;o((en, i;ivin!;' place (o o(hers. I'here, then, was j^robably the 
earliest tlomes(ii.a(ion. .Asia is our lar_i;es( t-on(inen(al area, with 
the j;teatest tliversitv in st)il, climate, and exposure. It is there- 
iorc richest in both animal anil |>lant varieties, as it is oldest in 
civilization ; anil we are no( surpi ised to learn tha( man\' ol om' 
most useful species were here domesiicated so lonj;' ai;c> that it is 
impossible to sav when. hmv. or bv whoni it was accomplished. 

I .ater (ban all (his. howexi-r. ami contemptMancous with the 
cultine that belon^etl to (iieece and the i;lory that was Rome's, 
the Indian of our own countrv was as wild as the buffalo and 

' 'I'iu- |)ioi),»l)l(.' pio';i-nit(M- of nn)st I'Airopoan l>iooils of cattle. 
■J The wild pannl ot i (.rt.iiii lauopean breeds of pifj. 



DOMKS'I'ICA'I'Kl) RACKS 



^7 



the bear that he hunted or tlic turkey that our Puritan fore- 
father tamed. VVlien Demostlienes was developing his oratory, 
and Alexander and Ciesar were extendin*;' their dominions, the 
Six Nations had probably not yet made the be<;innin}^ of what 
in time would undoiibk'dly have developed into an Indian civ- 
ilization, had it not been interrupted and finally destroyed by 
European discovery and invasion. 

Within the recollection of men now livinj;' the Sandwich 
Islanders were savages. Head-hunters and cannibals are not 
quite extinct in the Pacific Islands, while in Africa men are 
yet hunted like wild animals by their savage neighbors. Thus 
savagery lingered even until our own time. 

So it is that civilization is constantly springing up from new 
centers, giving us the oj^portunity of studying the methods of 
its beginning ; and so it is that tiie ways of primitive man are 
well known and are made a part, not of our imagination, but of 
authentic history. .So it is that we arrive at conclusions not only 
by inference and through relics of ancient peoples, but by actual 
observation of what men do in the primitive state, — of the real 
behavior of many and widely separated races that have for one 
reason or another been belated in their start towards civilization. 
In this way we are able to study the methods of domestication 
at first-hand. 

How the history of domestication is known. In the case of 
all tiiese peoples, however savage, some start has been made 
toward domesticating at least a few wild animals, and it is by 
jnitting together fragments such as these and adding the facts 
of recorded history that the story of domestication may be 
written almost if not quite from the beginning. 

Iwen little matters throw great light upon such a history. 
For example, the bones of animals that were hunted for food 
during the stone age are left behind in great heaps, called 
" kitchen middens," ^ while the bones of domesticated animals 

1 Especially numerous in western Europe. Most of these long bones have 
been split to get at the marrow. 



iS DOMKS'riCA'I'Kl) ANIMALS AND J'l.AN'I'S 

are often found buried with human remains, as would be hkelv 
with special favorites. In those days, of course, animals were 
not yet domesticated for food, but only to assist in the hunt, an 
inference perfectly safe from the fact that most of the remains 
in the middens are of deer and reindeer, e\'en yet not domesti- 
cated.^ In all these various ways the histor) of domestication of 
many if not most of our animals is well known, if not in detail, 
at least in a general way. 

Not always able to identify the original. However this may 
be, and however confident we may feel as to the processes of 
domestication, we often cannot speak with assurance of the 
exact wild species from which each particular domestic animal 
has been developed. We know that the ancestor was a wild 
animal, but which one or ones of the many similar races that 
must ha\'e existed in those remote times we have but scanty 
means of knowing. 

This is partly because, through breeding and care, all domes- 
ticated races have been greatly changed from their appearance 
in the wild state, and partly because in very many cases the wild 
original may itself have changed, or even, perhaps, long ceased 
to exist anywhere on earth ; indeed, it looks sometimes as if 
domestication had been the principal if not the only means of 
saving some of our most valuable species from utter extinction 
long ago. 

Distinction between feral and wild. Ihitil recent years im- 
mense numbers of so-called wild cattle, and of wild horses as 
well, roamed over our own western plains and over the pampas 
of South America. Sucli animals are not trul\- wild, because 
they do not represent an original stock, being merely the de- 
scendants of the cattle and horses brought over by the Spanish 
invaders, some of which escaped and " ran wild." Finding 
conditions favorable, such escaped specimens throve and freely 
multiplied, ultimately stocking the plains with roving bands of 

1 This statement may be questionable as to the reindeer, which is now 
semidomesticated. 



DOMESTICATED RACES 



19 



both cattle and horses, as truly wild in temperament as any 
species that ever ranged the natural pastures. 

Such descendants of escaped domesticated races, however, 
are called " feral," to distinguish them from a truly aboriginal 
stock, like the buffalo, that ranged our plains with our feral 
horses. Many cultivated plants also freely revert to the wild in 
unoccupied lands, but they are spoken of as having " escaped " 
from cultivation, so that the term "feral " is limited to animals. 

Feral animals have most of the characters and appearance of 
the domestic forms from which they spring, except in respect to 
temperament, which is that of the truly wild, all of which consti- 
tutes an additional argument for their origin in the wild.^ 

The next step is to see how it was that animals and plants 
came to be domesticated and taken out of the wild for the 
benefit of man. 

Summary. Domesticated animals and cultivated plants originated and 
existed for indefinite generations as wild, from which state they have been 
taken by man to meet his needs, and cultivated in order to insure a suf- 
ficient and unfailing supply. Some of these races were domesticated ages 
ago, some within the lifetime of men yet living, and all have been more or 
less modified from what they were in the wild state. 

Exercises. 1. What wild animals or plants in your vicinity are, in your 
opinion, related to domesticated or cultivated forms .>" 

2. What animals or plants that have never been domesticated would, in 
your opinion, prove valuable to man ? 

3. Make a list of the wild fruits and nuts native to your vicinity. 

4. Make an exhaustive list of the cat tribe of wild animals, with notes 
on the character and habitat of each. 

5. Make the same sort of study of the clog tribe, including wolves, foxes, 
and jackals. 

References. 1. " Wild White Cattle of Great Britain." Storer. 

2. The zoology and the botany in use in the local school. 

3. Any good cyclopedia, or, better, a special treatise such as Lydekker's 
Library of Natural History (6 vols.) 

1 In this connection read Jack London's " Call of the Wild," one of the 
strongest pictures of this reversion that has ever been drawn, and an excellent 
dog story withal. 



CHAPTER III 

HOW ANIMALS AND PLANTS CAME TO BE DOMESTICATED 

Domestication the result of necessity • Need for help in the htint ■ Need for 
additional food • Need for clothing and shelter • Need for labor • Domesti- 
cation the first step in civilization • The civilizing effect of slavery • What 
animals have done for us • Unused materials • Lost possibilities • Domestica- 
tion a gradual process • Species that were domesticated 

Domestication the result of necessity. Domestication both of 
animals and plants came naturally out of the needs of primitive 
man. If he could have maintained himself successfully on the 
spontaneous products of nature, he would never have undertaken 
the trouble of domesticating the wild animals and plants about 
him, and of assuming the labor and responsibility of their main- 
tenance and care. 

It early became, however, a matter of necessity. Primitive 
man, like the animals about him, lived under hard conditions. 
The " law of the wild " ^ was the law everywhere. Everything 
subsisted by virtue of its strength, its endurance, or its wits, and 
man, like his animal neighbors, spent most of his time in get- 
ting something to eat and in avoiding being eaten himself. As 
compared with the other animals, — for primitive man is little 
else than an animal, — our barbarian ancestors found themselves 
at no little disadvantage, purely on physical grounds. They 
w-ere not as strong as many of the animals and were no match 
for them in fair battle. They were not as fleet of foot as most 
of the game they hunted. They could not trail by scent like 
the wolf, and if the hunter by sheer endurance stalked his game 
and walked it to death,^ he was far from camp or cave where his 

1 See Chapter V. 

2 Man is probably the best walker among the animals and can easily outwalk 
even the horse in an endurance test. 



DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 2 I 

little ones were, and most of the carcass was worthless when at 
last he had obtained it. 

Primitive man was not long in discovering that his chief ad- 
vantage lay in his wits. He was the only animal that knew 
enough to pick up a club and use it as a weapon, either of 
offense or defense. He was the only one that could manage 
fire.^ He was the only one that could hurl a stone or make a 
machine to send a projectile of any sort.^ 

By aid of various devices, such as weapons and traps, the 
savage continued to subsist by his wits, and he was hard on the 
species he hunted. As a consequence game not only grew more 
scarce but it gradually learned the methods of this dangerous 
enemy, who struck where he was not, and became exceedingly 
wary, till scarcity and starvation were inevitable, calling for a 
fresh draft upon the wits. 

Need for help in the hunt. The hunting habits of the wolf 
must have early attracted the attention of our barbarian ances- 
tors. His ability to trail by the scent and his habit of hunting 
in packs, as well as his fieetness and his relentless endurance, 
could not have failed to impress themselves upon hungry hunters 
in very early times, and to possess a pack of such helpers must 
have been a primitive ambition. 

P'ortunately the nature of the wolf is such that he is easily 
tamed if taken young, and he succeeds well in captivity. His 
intelligence is of an order that responds to that of man in his 
hunting temper, and it is not strange that wherever primitive 

1 Monkeys and baboons will warm themselves by a fire, but do not know 
enough to replenish it. Fire was almost certainly at first obtained from volca- 
noes. Its production by friction and by flint and steel must have been much 
later achievements. 

2 The ingenuity of primitive man in making projectiles is truly remarkable. 
Bows and arrows, blowguns, and afterwards firearms, are progressive tributes 
to increasing intelligence ; but of all projectiles, the boomerang is the most 
wonderful, considering the grade of savage that produced it. The writer has 
been told by travelers who have seen it done, that a skillful thrower could 
strike a mark with the boomerang, which would then return and fall near the 
thrower's foot. 



22 nOMKS I'KA l"i:i) ANIMALS AND ri-ANTS 

man has been discowMvd ho has had cxlcnsixc packs oi doti^s, 
ccrtainh il woKos of an\- kiiul wciv t'ouiul in thai pari of 
the workl.' 

The cU\i;- was oasil\- tamed, Init he was Heeler of foot than 
man. his master, antl both game and doj;s were ahiiost certain 
to be soon k>st in the distance, leaving the master to come be- 
hind and lake what was left after the death. Accordingly the 
horse must ha\e earh appealetl to the primitive hunter on 
aee(,>unt o( his tleetness.'-^ With his horse and his do<2; and his 





Kie.. 5. llcail of the collio and of the coyote. Note similarity in outline and 

general efl'cct 

weapons, howexer, the man was match (ov anything tiiat roamed 
the forest or the plain, and with them he has established and 
made good his claim as lord of all creation. 

Need for additional food. lUit all this was still harder upon 
the hunted, ami game was raindlv killed off or driven awav, till 
many a time the hunter retiuned empl\-handed. Then it was 
that a few nuts or seeds gathered h\ the wtimen brought grate- 
ful relief from what would otherwise have been distressing fast, 



1 Reference has already been made to the fact that our American Indians 
had made doj^s out of the coyote or wild wolf of the prairie. 

■■^ As late as the times of the Ok\ Testament, even the wild ass is frequently 
alluded to as a symbol of swiftness. This is especially true in Job and the 
prophets, having reference, probabiv. to the Syrian wild ass figured in the 
Ninevite sculptures. 



DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 23 

and thus it was that agriculture had its l)eginnings in the fre- 
quent failure of the hunt. 

As game grew more and more scarce the favorite fruits were 
held in higher esteem, the places where the large-seeded grasses 
grew were carefully protected, the other vegetation was cleared 
away, and the beginnings of cultivation were made. The next 
step was to gather stores of fruits, nuts, and seeds for the 
winter, and, last of all, to plant and care for the very best in 
some open space or bend of the river where fresh new soil 
awaited occupation. Thus did cultivation begin, and thus were 
women the first farmers. 

Nothing was more natural than that the best should be 
gathered for eating, and the very choicest only reserved for 
planting. In this way the first steps in plant improvement were 
introduced at the very beginning of cultivation, and thus did 
our ancestors early learn the fundamental lesson of all breeding, 
namely, the better the parentage the better the offspring. 

This utilization of plants as well as animals added vastly to 
the food supply and greatly insured its constancy and regularity. 
Savages who followed this course prospered and encroached 
upon their neighbors, while those who depended solely upon 
the hunt suffered periodic famine and faced, in the end, extinc- 
tion,^ for in a state of nature the " law of the wild " obtains 
among men as well as among the animals. 

However, man was unwilling to give up his animal food with 
the growing scarcity of game. He had been in the habit of 
slaughtering the best,^ without regard to the future, — an utterly 
wasteful proceeding, for in this way the hunt was not only fear- 
fully destructive of numbers but of quality as well, and it is little 

1 Read the liistory of tlic Iroquois, or Six Nations, who raised crops, in con- 
trast with that of the C!anadian Indians who subsisted entirely by the hunt and 
were often forced in winter to eat the skins and even the bark of their wigwams. 

- It is always the largest buck that is singled out for the chase. The best of 
everything is hunted, just as the woodsman, cutting a tree, even for exercise, 
chooses always the straightest and best, while the forester, who is the product 
of civilization, cuts always the worst, giving the best a still better chance. 



24 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

wonder that hunting men starved periodically, when it took, as 
estimated, forty acres of good hunting ground to sustain one 
individual. 

It was inevitable that the time should come when man must 
take better care of the wild animals or give up animal food. 

The first step was to hunt and destroy the wild animals that 
preyed upon those that were of value to man,^ and the next was 
to spare the finest males and all females with young.^ Thus 
were the first steps in domestication and the beginning of im- 
provement instituted at substantially the same time. 

The next step was to provide food for this increasing stock 
of valuable semidomesticated animals. This was done in two 
ways. The easy way was to herd and drive the bunch to fresh 
pastures where there was good water. This required a consider- 
able force of men and horses, not only to herd the animals but 
to protect them from robbers, because these herds were none too 
plenty and the feeding lands none too extensive.'^ 

The other plan of providing food was to supply it directly 
from cultivated plants, confining the animals more and more as 
natural feeding grounds became exhausted. This is the more 
laborious of the two methods, but it is the one followed when 
natural feeding grounds (plains) are not extensive, and it is the 
one necessarily followed wherever lands become valuable. Thus 
did man save to his own use and preserve from extinction not 
only the dog and the horse, but all the animals good for food, 
and thus, in a measure, has he become their servant and care- 
taker in consideration of what they can do for him. 

1 To the knowledge of the writer a wolf hunt occurred in Illinois as late as 
the very close of the last century, — 1 am quite sure in 189S. 

2 At the discovery of South America the Peruvian Indians, orAztecs, were 
found to have already instituted an annual hunt by which all the animals of 
a great region were rounded up in some mountain valley, driven to close 
quarters, the worthless and dangerous beasts of prey systematically killed, and 
the supply of meat taken not from the best, but from the common animals, 
being careful to release the best for breeding purposes in order that the quality 
of the supply should not deteriorate. 

8 Read again the story of Abraham and Lot, Genesis xiii, 7-1 1. 



DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 25 

Need for clothing and shelter. Food was not the only need 
of man supplied by the beast and bird of the forest. The skins 
were good for clothing and for tents, enabling the primitive 
hunter to leave his cave and other natural shelters, and erect 
his home wherever inclination or necessity dictated. The skins 
of those taken for food were, however, not enough to meet 
this need, and the world over animals with especially fine body 
covering have been hunted almost to the point of extermina- 
tion for their fur, originally as a matter of necessity but in these 
latter days as a matter of luxury and profit.^ So relentless has 
been that warfare, and so systematically has it been conducted, 
that our valuable fur-bearing animals are nearly exhausted and 
we ourselves will soon face the same issue with respect to these 
animals that our barbarian ancestors faced with respect to food 
animals, — domesticate or go without. 

Even this has not fully met our need for the products of the 
animal body, and many species with a long coat have from time 
immemorial been shorn of their fleece, the "wool " to be woven 
into cloth and the animal saved to grow another crop. Thus did 
the scarcity of animals add one more step in our march of civili- 
zation, and add the loom to our industries. 

Even this was not enough. The wool of sheep and the hair 
of goat and alpaca alone could not meet our new demands for 
fabric. Then came the resort to vegetable fiber, not only for 
clothing, but for cordage to take the place of the more expen- 
sive, and at last impossible, dried sinew and leather lariat.^ Thus 

1 The Hudson Bay Company was founded in 1670, and chartered by the 
British government with special privileges to hunt fur-bearing animals in the 
Canadas, especially in the Hudson l^ay territory. These hunters and trappers 
were really the first explorers, for they not only subsidized the Indians to hunt 
and trap, but themselves penetrated to the remotest depths of forest and moun- 
tain in search of the precious pelt. The quest for seal was no less ardent upon 
the water than was that for otter, mink, and beaver on the land. 

- In certain portions of the tropics a tough and slender vine is used for 
binding together the timbers in fence and building construction. The cipo 
(pronounced see-po) is a vine of this kind, and is suggestively called the 
Brazilian nail. 



26 domesticatp:i) animals and plants 

a new list of plants came into cultivation, greatly extending our 
farming oj:)erations, — all in order to meet the needs of an ad- 
vancing civilization. y\nd the end is not yet, for the demand is 
still for more and better fabrics. 

Need for labor. From the beginning man was a lazy animal. 
Like his associates, he bestirred himself only in the presence of 
extreme necessity. He acquired the horse to add to his fleet- 
ness of limb, and thereby learned the lesson that riding is not 
only faster but easier than walking. 

Besides, when man undertook the somewhat wholesale domes- 
tication of animals and plants he assumed an immense burden 
not only of responsibility but of labor. If now he was to under- 
take to provide the horse's food, what more natural than that 
the horse should pull the plow ^ to raise his own provender ? 
Then, too, with the accumulated property to be carried from 
place to place, not only for storage but for trading with people 
who desired exchange, still new uses for the horse were found. 

In this and other ways not only the horse was put to work, 
but other animals like the ox, the camel, and the llama were 
domesticated chiefly for their labor. Thus with the passing of 
the hunt the old occupation of the horse is gone, but he has 
found other uses which are no less valuable in our eyes, and we 
cannot foresee the time when the so-called "horseless age" will 
be truly ushered in.^ 

Domestication the first step in civilization. Every hungry 
man is a savage, whatever his stage of development, and no 
race is ready to lay even the foundations of a civilization till it 
has provided itself with an ample and assured food supply. As 
long as primitive man depended solely upon the hunt, so long 
did he alternate between fast and famine, with the certainty that 
in the end the famine would gel liim. 

^ The original plow was not the traditional forked stick. It was without 
doubt simply a sharp stick drawn i)y a cord or vine, and held by the attendant 
in a slanting direction. 

2 In spite of all the talk about doing away with horses, their numbers and 
prices are steadily increasing. 



DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 27 

But with animals to care for came property interests to de- 
fend, and a feeling of responsibility developed which only can 
stimulate that sober activity which marks civilization as distinct 
from savagery. 

With the primitive crops land came to have a value. This, 
too, had to be defended, for savage enemies were not long in 
learning that cultivated fields on which were growing the next 
winter's food constituted the most vulnerable point in a neigh- 
bor.^ Stores of grain also constituted peculiar temptations and 
necessitated walled or otherwise defendable cities. 

The civilizing effect of slavery. There is a chapter of this 
ancient history most unpleasant to revive, but yet upon which 
we ought to be intelligent. It is difficult for us now to realize 
how slavery ever did any good in the world, or how it ever 
helped along towards civilization, yet a little reflection will serve 
to show how at one time it played an important part. 

In the primitive division of labor it was natural that the men 
should be the hunters while the women stayed behind with the 
children. It was natural, too, that upon the return of the suc- 
cessful hunters, tired and hungry, their duty ended when the 
game was brought home and laid at the feet of the women, whose 
natural duty it was to skin the animals and prepare the meal. 

Again, nothing was more natural than that the women should, 
during the absence of the hunters, scour the neighboring forests 
for such nuts and fruits and seeds as they could pick up ; for 
experience taught that the hunt was not always successful, and 
that a dinner of herbs was better than none at all, besides 
contributing to the good humor of the men, who, in savagery, 
did not hesitate to abuse anybody who was unable to success- 
fully resist. 

Taken altogether, the lot of the women of primitive races 
is a hard and laborious one, with plenty of abuse thrown in. 
Now it is easy to see how scarcity of game, restricted hunting 
grounds, cultivated fields, and stores of food lead to warfare. But 

^ How this led to war has already been noted in connection with the Iroquois. 



28 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

warfare means j^risoners, and there is one thing more satisfying 
to a savage victor than to kill his prisoner and use his skull for 
a drinking bowl, and that is to take him home and turn him over 
as a slave to his savage wife, who is not slow to make him per- 
form her labor and to vent upon him the abuse she has so often 
suffered herself, and which she and her children so well know 
how to bestow. 

Imagine the satisfaction with which a victorious savage would 
regard the chief of a rival tribe whom he had brought as a 
present to his wife, as he saw him day after day doing the 
work of women ! Imagine, too, the satisfaction of the woman 
in ha\ing the opportunity to belabor a man and perhaps encour- 
age the children to practice CRielty upon him whom they had 
once learned to dread as a great warrior. 

It is a hard picture, this primitive slaver)-, but it is only under 
conditions such as these that the savage man and the barbarian 
woman first came to stand on terms of equality ; thus it is that 
slavery w-as the first emancipation of woman, and it is this in- 
stitution, bad as it is, that first made leisure possible to woman- 
kind, and g-ave her honorable stiinding in the e\'es of man. 
With the later chapters of slavery and its degradation to both 
races we are more familiar, but we cannot afford to forget, in 
our horror of this now extinct institution, the great service it 
once rendered to woman when the world was young. 

What animals have done for us. The want of space does not 
permit the expansion of this thought, but it is one to which 
young people may well give some special study, for animals not 
only give their bodies and body products to be consumed, but 
they toil day after day for our advantage. 

With the recent mechanical inventions, the business of carry- 
ing both freight and men has been largely removed from our 
animals, especially in our most highly civilized countries. And 
yet w^e do not forget the pony express of our western plains, 
nor fail to remember that it was within the memory of men 
yet li\'ing that the patient ox toiled day after day to drag endless 



DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 29 

emigrant trains across the boundless prairies, through the 
bottomless "sloughs" and over the Great Divide. "Westward 
the course of empire takes its way " would never have had its 
full meaning for us, except for the thousands of cattle that 
dropped by the wayside and left their bones bleaching on the 
prairies beside those of the buffalo relative, as tribute to the 
march of civilization westward.^ 

The development of South Africa is yet almost unwritten 
history.^ Here no animal but the ox can endure the endless 
toil of the treeless plain, and he has been the constant attendant 
of the Boer from the Great Trek till the present, as he is 
likely to be for a considerable time to come. 

Nothing is more common than for people that have become 
prosperous to forget, even perhaps to despise, the very means 
by which their prosperity came about, — to overlook the means 
in the enjoyment of results. These animals literally give their 
lives to our service, with no returns but feed and care, a fact 
which raises the question of our natural obligation in exacting 
this service. We are practicing upon them the " law of the 
wild " even yet. Doubtless the end justifies the means, and 
without a doubt it is right to use our animals to our own ad- 
vantage, but every law, both human and divine, forbids that 
we abuse them. 

In a large measure life in any form is a sacred thing. A 
man's horse or cow belongs to him only in the restricted sense 
that he is entitled to the service, and if necessary the life, only 
when he provides generously for the needs of the animal and 
surrounds it by as much comfort as possible. At best our ani- 
mals are bits of God's creation which we are entitled to appro- 
priate and use only under terms which we can justify before 
Him who is the judge of all. 

1 Even the first material for the Union Pacific was hauled by oxen, so that 
the ox gave his labor as the buffalo gave his flesh, and both gave their lives to 
this first connection between the East and the West. 

2 See James Bryce's " Impressions of South Africa," an excellent book 
dealing with primitive conditions. 



30 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND I'LAXI S 

Unused materials. It has been frequently mentioned that the 
world migiit have been much richer in domesticated races if it 
had seemed worth while, or if we had really set about it. 

The bison, whether European or American, would have made 
a good domestic animal of the cattle kind. The quagga could 
be domesticated if we needed him. The bighorn of the Rockies 
would make a sheep, and the peccar)' or the wild boar would 
make a pig. The prairie hen would make a better fowl than 
the guinea hen, and any number of new dogs could be devel- 
oped from the foxes and the wolves. 

The wild rice of our northern lakes would make an excel- 
lent grain for lowlands. The milkweed ma}- have possibilities 
as a fiber plant. Many of our native fruits and nuts have never 
been domesticated, and it is a startling fact that our original 
native grasses of the prairie, numbering many species, are being 
allowed to disappear without contributing a single new race to 
our cultivated grasses, — this, too, in face of the fact that we 
have yet no grass without a serious defect. 

Except for the difficulty of restraint, the deer and the antelope 
would make valuable domesticated animals. The semidomesti- 
cation of the skunk has already begun on the great skunk farms 
where they are raised in numbers for their skins. The frightful 
odor of this animal when on the defensive has given him an 
evil reputation, but in truth he is a most gentle animal, with 
much the disposition of the cat and without its savage ways. 
The flesh is exceedingly sweet and tender, and it is altogether 
likely that this little beast may yet become more nearly domes- 
ticated than will ever be possible with the ostrich, which seems 
incapable of affection. 

Lost possibilities. W' ithout a doubt many an animal or plant 
now extinct would have made a most valuable domesticated 
species, had it been taken in time. It is difficult to give ex- 
amples because we know so little of extinct species, and because 
it is impossible to make direct comparisons between a domesti- 
cated and a wild race, either of the same or a different species. 




31 



32 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Many good and useful species, however, have been lost, and 
many far less valuable have lingered. 

Just now we are beginning to realize the possible value of a 
species that has come upon the earth, made its way, and main- 
tained its place among competitors, if perchance it possesses 
qualities that are now, or that by attention may be, developed 
into characters useful to man. The muskmelon is an example 
of a species most unpromising in nature, and therefore neg- 
lected almost until our own day, yet yielding readily to im- 
provement and producing most delicious fruit. The tomato is 
another example, and asparagus another. 

Recognizing these facts as never before, the Department of 
Agriculture at Washington is scouring the world in search 
of plants of possible economic value, or those that are likely to 
yield to the ameliorating influences of the breeder and the cul- 
tivator. Even if not now valuable, those that are likely to be- 
come so are well worth the most careful consideration. In this 
way domestication of plants is at last becoming a systematic, not 
to say a scientific, business. 

This search for the possibly useful is coming to be nearly as 
systematic and far-reaching as the scouring of the earth, by 
such firms "as Parke, Davis & Company, of Detroit, for plants 
with new and possibly valuable medicinal qualities. 

Domestication a gradual process. Southeastern Asia w'as un- 
doubtedly the first area of domestication, with Egypt a close 
second. Europe came later, and America last of all. Each made 
its contribution to the stock of domesticated animals and plants 
by adding what was lacking, by making use of some specially 
valuable native, or by utilizing the wild stock of the region when 
the cultivated races failed to acclimate, as was the case with 
European grapes in the eastern United States. 

In a general way the history of these civilizations is the story 
of their domestications as well, and a critical reading of that 
history with this particular subject in mind affords many side 
lights on the people, as, for example, the terror of the Indians 



DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 33 

at the Spaniard on horseback, or the IsraeHtes' fear of the 
mounted ami)' of the Assyrians before the Hebrews obtained 
horses after the Exodus. 

Species that were domesticated. The only consideration that 
seems to have guided man in his work of domestication is the 
possible usefulness of the species. No labor or pains seem to 
have been so great, and no timidity or ferocity so extreme, 
as to deter him from his purpose in the presence of a need 
unsatisfied that some natural species might gratify. 

At this point, and before taking up questions of improvement, 
the student is strongly urged to turn to Part II and make a 
detailed study of the sources from which our domesticated ani- 
mals and plants have been drawn. If it is impossible to do this 
for all species, let him at least do so for a selected number. The 
chapters in question are separated from the body of the work, so 
that they may be used either as text or reference, according to 
the circumstances and the need of the student or the school. 

Summary. Domestication was, in the beginning, a matter of necessity in 
order to insure a constant and adequate food supply, and it has been con- 
tinued as a means of contributing to the comfort and general prosperity of 
man. We have used what we needed and left the rest alone, leaving unu- 
tilized much valuable material. Without this domestication oiif present state 
of civilization could not have developed, and we could not spare any of the 
prominent races now, either plant or animal, without detriment to man. 

The facts of this chapter will enable us to realize why the list of domes- 
ticated species is so extensive, and it will prepare us for a more particular 
and detailed study of special races both of animals and plants, as outlined 
in Part II, as it will also prepare us for a realization of the need of still 
further modifications and the means for effecting this improvement. 

Exercises. 1. In what respects do pioneers experience the hardships and 
assume the habits of primitive man ? 

2. In what respects do camping parties revert to the primitive state ? 

3. Show under what disadvantages we would live without the horse, the 
cow, or any other common animal or crop. 

4. Make a list of the domesticated animals and plants kept by the Egyp- 
tians during the sojourn of the Jews in bondage, in the delta of the Nile. 

5. Make a list of the domestic animals kept by the Jews during the forty 
years' wandering in the wilderness. 



34 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

6. What domesticated animals and plants did the Jews acquire after ob- 
taining the Promised Land, and how did it affect their civilization.'' When 
did they acquire horses? 

7. What animals and plants had been wholly or partialh- domesticated by 
the natives of North and South .America before discover)- b\- the white man ? 

References. 1. Any good book dealing with primili\e or pioneer life, 
such as " The Oregon Trail " by Parkman, or the " Winning of the West " 
by Roosevelt. 

2. The earlier chapters of the Old Testament. 

3. " The Conquest of Peru." Prescott. 

4. Any good book on the North American Indians, such as l^arkman's 
"Jesuits in North America.'' 



CHAPTER IV 

NEED OF IMPROVEMENT IN DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 
AND PLANTS 

Natural species not perfectly adjusted to our needs • Maintenance of animals 
costly ■ Further improvement needed ■ Need of more economic service • Some 
individuals better than others • Economic significance of differences in effi- 
ciency • The fact of variability established • Variability in a single character • 
Historical knowledge of original species needed 

Natural species not perfectly adjusted to our needs. If our 

animal and plant allies had been especially created for our serv- 
ice, it is to be assumed that they would have been perfectly 
adapted to our needs ; but as they were appropriated from the 
wild, they ofttimes but imperfectly meet our requirements. 

For example, the horse is a little too timid, the bull too un- 
trustworthy and ferocious, the wool of the sheep either too coarse 
or too short for many needs ; and all animals make meat only 
at enormous expense of feed, requiring, roughly speaking, about 
ten pounds of grain or its equivalent for one pound of meat. 

Corn has a little too much oil and not quite enough protein 
for the best feeding purposes, and the stalk is larger and 
heavier than we would like. Oats do not yield sufficiently in 
the warmer sections, and we still lack an ideal pasture grass for 
most regions of the earth. 

And so we might go on indefinitely, enumerating particulars 
in which we could wish our domesticated races were better 
adapted to our requirements. 

Maintenance of animals costly. Few realize the expense of 
maintaining our extensive animal population. One cow will eat 
thirty dollars' worth of feed in a year at ordinary prices, and 
more if she can get it. A horse will eat from fifty to seventy- 
five dollars' worth, according to the way in which he is kept. 

35 



36 DOMESTICA TED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Besides this, these animals recjuire a large amount of labor in 
earing for their needs, and a still additional expense for the 
shelter of themselves and their feed.^ 

The animal population of the United States in millions as 
compared with the human is substantially as follows : 



Human population 
Horses, mules, and asses 
Cattle of all kinds . . 

Sheep 

Swine 



Census of 1900 



75,000,000 
2 1 ,000,000 
67,000,000 
61,000,000 
62,000,000 



Estimated for igio 



90,000,000 
27,000,000 
73.000,000 
67,000,000 
68,000,000 



With fi\e jK'oplc to the lamil)-, we can say that in general 
and on the average every famil\- has one horse, four head of 
cattle, four sheep, and four swine, with several millions left over, 
— a total average of three animals for each human inhabitant, 
or fifteen to the familw The estimate for 19 lo can be only 
approximate, for these proportions vary greatly. 

It is little wonder that we raise immense acreages of hay, 
corn, and oats to maintain all these animals. It is only on care- 
ful thought that we realize how much of our lands and how 
much of our labor are devoted to the care and maintenance of 
the animals we have domesticated and brought to live among 
us, and whose support we have undertaken. 

There is argument enough now for the highest attainable 
efficiency on the score of expense, but it must be evident to the 
most casual reader that with the increase of human ]oopulation 

1 Read Circula}- 118, Experiment Station, University of Illinois, and see how 
extensive the barns must be to shelter the large number of inefficient cows 
necessary to return the same profit as would be returned by a few economical 
producers. In the case in hand, one class of cows return fourteen times the 
profit of the other. This would mean that in order to realize a certain net in- 
come, fourteen times as many cows of the one kind would have to be kept as 
of the other, which means fourteen times as much barn room, fourteen times 
as much capital tied up in feed, fourteen times as much milking, and more 
than fourteen times as much waste and risk. 



NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 37 

and the enhanced value of lands, the time will come when it 
will be difficult, if not impossible, to support as large an animal 
population as we should like.^ Surely it is high time even now 
to push forward this increase of efficiency to the end that values 
shall not be wasted, and to the further end that as population 
increases, our animal friends shall be less a burden upon us as 
we continue to enjoy their service. 

Further improvement needed. With some of our older 
species the service is entirely satisfactory as to quality, but with 
most of the newer and many of the older there is yet much to 
be desired. 

For example, wheat and oats are, so far as we know, ideal in 
their quality, except that we should like to see a larger propor- 
tion of strong plants with less shrunken grain. This, however, 
expresses itself in a matter of amount rather than in quality of 
food product. The cow gives us good milk, but not enough of 
it for the feed she consumes, and so others might be mentioned 
that are satisfactory except as to amount. 

Coming to corn the case is different. This is preeminently 
a stock food, but it is deficient in both nitrogen and minerals, 
especially phosphorus. Can this deficiency be wholly or partly 
remedied by mixture with other crops, such as alfalfa, for ex- 
ample, or does something remain to be done in the way of 
altering the chemical composition of corn itself ? If the latter, 
the indications are that we can accomplish it. 

Horses are now certainly fast enough. A two-minute gait is 
at the rate of thirty miles an hour, which is neither safe nor 
desirable for ordinaiy use. However, in the opinion of city 
teamsters, the horse is not yet large enough. For their business 

1 Let the student exercise his imagination in picturing the condition as we 
approach the density of population of China, 400 to the square mile. How 
then shall animals be kept? Our population has doubled four times in the last 
hundred years. What will be the condition if this rate of increase should con- 
tinue another hundred years ? Let the student make some estimates covering 
this question. Let him also determine the effect of education upon coming 
problems of this kind. 



38 DOMKS'riCATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

it is dcsirahli' Id liaul as nuK'h lR'ii;ht as possibK- with oiu- team, 
one waj^on, and one driver.' 

I lowcvcr lasl the horse may ^o, he rarely jjleascs us in his 
gait or his endurance, nor are his intelligence and docility yet 
ideal. The horse is naturally a timid animal, and with his great 
])()\ver is dangerous and growing more so with his increasing 
s])irit, unless his intelligence and tractahleness are made to keep 
jxRe with his increasing energy and action. Our safety depends 
not upon our strength in his management, but ui)on the extent 
to which the horse will take training and our ability and skill 
in imparting that training.^ Before a large proportion of our 
spirited horses are satisfactory at this point much is needed by 
way of further improvement. 

In respect to fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants much 
remains to be accomplished. Most of our fruits are relatively 
new and not completely acclimated or fully adapted to all our 
soils and conditions. Added to that is the fact that conditions 
in fruit raising have suddenly changed. The time was when 
every man picked from " liis own vine and fig tree," but now 
we expect that most fruits will be transported long distances^ 
and still reach the consumer not only sound but fresh. This 
is asking much, and the present call is for desirable " market 
varieties," meaning those which yield well, are of good quality, 
and will stand shipment, especially the latter. 

1 As a good example, Ciiiin and t'ompany, tlie publishers of this book, 
had in their service a single team that could and did haul a load of over eight 
tons. It mattered but little that the wagon weighed three and three-fourths 
tons. One man drove the whole, and expensive labor and long delays were 
avoided. 

2 People who are not horsemen often think they are " able to hold any 
horse." Real horsemen know better, and fully realize that the bit and the line 
are at best only guides of a superior intelligence over one that is inferior but 
willing to yield itself to guidance. For driving purposes, therefore, a horse is 
valuable and safe in proportion as he has been trained and educated, and 
always under all circumstances amenable to direction and control. 

* Consider the shipping of such delicate California fruits as peaches, pears, 
and grapes over the entire United States and the exportation of apples to 
Kuro]3e. 



NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 39 

There is no especial difficulty in combining yield and quality, 
but the best varieties are in general too delicate to withstand 
shipment for long distances unless picked green, which is an in- 
jury to the flavor, except in such cases as the banana and the pear. 
That the ideal market apple has not yet been produced is a fact 
that shows what remains to be done. Many more new varieties 
of pears, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries will 
continue to be produced before all sections will be supplied with 
the best varieties both for home use and market purposes. 

Vegetables are in much the same condition as fruits. Vast 
improvement in most kinds has been effected within recent 
years, and it is still going on at a rapid rate. The tomato has 
been developed from the worthless " love apple " within the life- 
time of men yet living, who remember when this now luscious 
fruit suffered an evil rejjutation as the supposed cause of cancer. 

Asparagus, lettuce, and radishes have been wonderfully im- 
proved within a generation, not to mention celery and sweet 
corn ; and as matters are going now, onions will be made more 
delicate in their flavor, and many a vegetable will come into 
common use that is hardly yet introduced. 

The development of new and beautiful varieties of flowers 
and other ornamental plants is only begun. Out of the mate- 
rials at hand new and unheard-of effects will be produced now 
that plant breeding is coming to be studied and understood 
as a science. 

Need of more economic service. The first great need for 
better plants and animals is in the interest of larger return 
for the expense involved. It costs no more to fit and cultivate 
the ground for a fifty-bushel crop of corn than for a thirty- 
bushel crop,^ in which case the extra twenty bushels are clear 
gain. If ten or twenty ears of corn of the same variety, and as 
nearly alike as possible, be planted in separate rows side by side, 

1 The average corn crop is aliout thirty bushels, yet the most profitalile 
crop at the University of IHinois has averaged ninety-six bushels for the last 
three years. 



40 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



it will be found that some of the rows will \ield two and often 
three times as much as others,^ all of which proves that some 
varieties or strains will produce fifty bushels as easily as others 
will produce thirty, showing conclusively the need of better 
seed, or rather of the best that is obtainable. 

Professor PYaser, head of the dairy department at the P^ni- 
versity of Illinois, has conducted many hundreds of actual tests, 
aiming to secure reliable data on the relative efficiency of cows. 
These tests are of two general kinds : one conducted away 
from the University on the commercial herds of the state, 
aiming to secure the yearly product with only approximate 
reference to the food consumption ; the other conducted at the 
University under the most careful conditions, and aiming to 
secure records of the nutrients consumed, as well as of the 
milk and fat produced. 

Of the commercial-herd tests something over twelve hundred 
individuals have been tested for periods running from one to 
three years. Their average animal }Droduction was 5521 pounds 
of milk and 219 pounds of fat distributed as follows : 

Relative Milk-Producinc; I'owers of 1200 Cows for One Year 



Milk 


Number below 


Percent below 


Number above 


Per cent above 


Average 


2,000 lb. 


10 


I — 


1 190 


99 + 


5,554 lb. 


3,000 lb. 


69 


6- 


'•3' 


94 + 


5,704 lb. 


4,000 lb. 


243 


20 + 


957 


80- 


6,092 lb. 


5,000 11). 


495 


41 + 


705 


59- 


6,650 lb. 


6,000 lb. 


753 


63- 


447 


37 + 


7,322 lb. 


7,000 lb. 


963 


80 + 


^37 


20 — 


S.oSi lb. 


8,000 lb. 


1096 


9' + 


104 


9- 


8,943 lb. 


9,000 lb. 


1 1 60 


97 - 


40 


3 + 


9,770 lb. 


I0,OQO lb. 


1 186 


99- 


14 


I + 


10.734 lb. 


I 1,000 lb. 


1 197 




3 




1 1,893 '^• 


1 2,000 lb. 


1 199 




I 




12,1 17 lb. 



" This is an cxpcriniciu that every student can readily verify, and it is 
recommended that he do it. 



NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 4 1 

Relative Fat-Producing Powers of 1200 Cows for One Year 



Butter fat 


Number below 


Per cent below 


Number above 


Per cent above 


Average 


50 lb. 


2 


I — 


I198 


99 + 


2191b. 


100 lb. 


24 


2 


1.76 


98 


222 lb. 


150 lb. 


194 


16 + 


1006 


84- 


238 lb. 


200 lb. 


490 


31 - 


710 


59 + 


263 lb. 


250 lb. 


837 


70- 


363 


30 + 


302 lb. 


300 lb. 


1065 


89- 


135 


II + 


353 lb. 


350 lb. 


I 140 


95 


60 


5 


394 lb. 


400 lb. 


I 178 


98 + 


22 


2 - 


438 lb. 


450 lb. 


I 194 


99 + 


6 


I — 


477 lb. 


500 lb. 


I 199 




I 




539 lb- 



These tables should be read as follows : In the first table, 10 
cows, or I per cent of the whole, gave less than 2000 pounds 
of milk ; and 1 1 90, or 99 per cent, gave more than 2000 
pounds, the average of these being 5554 pounds, and so on 
for other values. 

Some comments on these facts are significant. The average 
production of these 1200 cows was 5521 pounds of milk, and 
219 pounds of butter fat. The best one fourth were able to pro- 
duce an average of 7813 pounds of milk and 312 pounds of 
butter fat per year, while the poorest one fourth were able to 
produce on the average only 3435 pounds of milk and i 37 pounds 
of fat ; that is to say, waiving all questions of food consumption, 
the poorest one fourth produced but something over 43 per cent 
as much milk and fat as did the best one fourth. 

A series of publications from the department shows exhaus- 
tively the meaning of these facts. Some of these were published 
before the entire number of records were in, but the relation 
between the good and the poor cow was substantially the same. 

Some individuals better than others. One of the most strik- 
ing facts in the above herd tests is the wonderful difference in 
efficiency of individual cows, even of the same age and breed. 
Thus they ranged all the way from less than 2000 pounds of 



4^ 



DOMKSTICA TKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



milk per year up to over 12,000, and from Irss than 50 jjounds 
of butter fat ^ to over 500 pounds. Manifestly a whole herd like 
the poorer cows would swamp their owner unless prices were 
enormous or unless their food consumption were correspond- 
in<;h' lower. 

To test this point, the dejjartment conducted investigations 
into the relative efficiency of commercial cows on the basis of 
food consumed. Accordingly two or more cows were ])urchased 
from each of several of the largest commercial herds of the 
state, the aim being in every case to secure the very best and 
the very poorest individuals in the herd, according to the best 
basis of judgment at hand. The yearly record of these cows 
is shown in the following table : 

VAKiAi-.n.nv oi' Cows on i'mk Basis ok P'ood CoNsuMrriox 



No. of 
cow 2 


Grades 


Total 
milk 


Total 
fat 


Digestible 
nutrient* 


Ratio 

n-j-m" 


Ratio 

n^f 


83 
84 


Good 
roor 


11.794 
8.157 


382 
324 


7418 


0.63 
0.82 


19.42 
20.79 


8s 
86 


Good 
Poor 


9.59' 
3.097 


406 
119 


7532 
4998 


0.78 
I.61 


'8.55 
42.00 


93 
94 


Good 
Poor 


9.473 
7.845 


358 
282 


7604 
6706 


C.80 
0.85 


21.24 
23.80 


95 
96 


(jood 
Poor 


14,840 
7,685 


469 
324 


8379 
6871 


0.56 
0.81 


17.08 
21.20 


97 
98 


Good 
Poor 


8,562 
1,41 1 


291 
52 


6893 
4062 


0.80 
2.88 


23.68 
78.00 



' Hy butter fat is meant not hulter, hut the fat of butter. Commercial butter 
contain.s about 85 per cent fat, the rest being water, salt, curd, etc. 

2 Numbers by which the cows were designated in the records. 

•' Each group from the same herd. 

* After multiplying number of pounds of fat by 2.4. This represents the 
amount f)f food digested by each cow. 

'' n -^ m = nutrients divided by milk ])i'o(luced. 

® n -=- f = nutrients divided by fat produced. 



NEKI) Ol' IMrROVKMKNT 43 

A miinlKT of sii^nilicaiU fads a])])c'ar in this tabic. The herd 
which furnished Nos. 83 and 84 was evidently a j^ood lu-rd, for 
they were both good cows, though one was bought for a jjoor 
cow. While the two differ widely in total jjroduction, they differ 
almost correspondingly in food consumption, and the ratios for 
fat production were close together. 

On the other hand, Nos. 85, 86, though coming from the 
same herd, betray wide differences. The good cow, No. 85, was 
more than twice as eflficient as her mate, No. 86, whether we 
consider fat or milk. 

Nos. 93 and 94, coming from the same herd, were both me- 
dium cows, which goes fai" to show thai the herdsman's estimate 
of his cows is frequently far from correct. 

The very low producing" power of No. 98 is remarkable, rc- 
(juiring 2,88 pounds of nutrient for a ])ound of milk, and over 
78 j)ounds of nutrient for a pound of fal, not cjuite one ciuarter 
the efliciency of No. 83. 

The very high efficiency of two of these cows is noticeable, 
being more than five times that of the poorest cow mentioned 
before, and more than twice the efficiency of the poorer cows in 
the permanent herd. 

In addition to the above, some especially good individuals 
have been pitted for a long time against others of inferior 
ability. For example. Rose and Nora ^ consumed within a year 
almost exactly the same amount of the same kind of k\-i\, the 
difference being less than 5 per cent. They were both rela- 
tively heavy feeders, each consuming something over 6000 
pounds of digestible nutrients. Rose produced 564.82 pounds 
of fat, and Nora 298.64, a ratio of 1.9 to i. When we remem- 
ber that Nora, the poorer cow, was not a poor cow at all, but 
that she belongs with the best fourth of the 1 200 tested in the 

1 The story of Rose and Queen, the latter another and a really poor cow, 
has been entertainingly told in Circular loj of the dairy department of the 
University of Illinois, which has issued also Circular /iS, Cows 7',*. Cows, deal- 
ing with the difference in efficiency of cows, and its meaning to the profits of 
dairying and the cost of dairy products to the consumer. 



44 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

commercial herds of the state, this difference is exceedingly sig- 
nificant. Rose was, of course, an exceptional cow, producing in 
another test over two and one-half times as much as her com- 
petitor, and making a twelve-year record of 7258 pounds of 
milk, and 360 pounds of butter fat on the average (384 pounds 
of fat for ten years), and never being beaten but once in all the 
dairy tests ever conducted at this station. Professor Mumford, 
also of the University of Illinois, has shown that substantially 
the same differences exist between beef animals in respect to 
the amount of gain for food consumed,^ so that the principle 
involved seems general. 

Economic significance of differences in efficiency. The mean- 
ing of all this is not at once clear, and some little effort is 
needed to fully appreciate the economic significance of differ- 
ences such as are here brought out, and the consequent desira- 
bility of bringing our common animals to the highest possible 
degree of efficiency. When one cow can make two and one- 
half times as much as another on the same feed, the difference 
is not as two and one-half is to one, but many times greater. 
Under these conditions, when one cow makes 100 pounds of 
butter, the other will make 250 pounds on the same feed ; but 
the question of relative profits depends also upon two other 
factors, — the cost of feed and the price of butter. For the sake 
of illustration let us suppose, first, that it costs the value of 
50 pounds of butter to pay for the food consumed, which is the 
same in both cases. The profit would then be, in the one case, 
the value of 100—50 (or 50) pounds of butter; and in the 
other, 250 — 50 (or 200) pounds, which is not tn'o and one-half 
but four times as mueli. 

Suppose again that feed is higher or butter lower, so that it 
now costs the value not of 50 pounds but of 90 pounds to pay 
for the cost of feed. In this case the profit for the poorest cow 
is the value of 100 — 90 (or 10) pounds of butter, and for the 
other it is the value of 250 — 90 (or 160) pounds of butter, 
^ See " Principles of 15reeding," p. 82. 



NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 45 

which is sixteen times as much, not to mention the additional 
expense for shelter and labor, or the extra capital involved in 
the larger amount of feed consumed by the less economical 
cow. Surely we need no better argument to show the necessity 
for further improvement of cows. 

We are in a transition stage, also, in the matter of meat pro- 
duction, and have need of the most economical consumers of 
our feed. If we neglect this point, our own meat will not only 
cost too much, but we shall be driven out of foreign markets by 
such competitors as Argentina. The first to suffer in such an 
event would be the farmers, and afterward all classes of people 
would suffer together.^ 

The fact of variability established. All this tends to establish 
the fact that all individuals of the same species are not equally 
valuable, and plenty of evidence of a similar character can be 
adduced to show that no two individuals, even of the same 
species or breed, are exactly alike. 

Of the many hundreds of thousands of people personally 
seen by each of us, we find many similarities but no dupli- 
cates ; moreover, the differences are many and extreme. Some 
individuals have dark hair, others light ; with some it is thick, 
with others thin ; now it is straight and again it is curly or 
wavy. Some eyes are blue ; others are black or brown. One 
man is tall and slender, while even his brother is short and 
stout. Some are broad-shouldered ; others are thin-chested, 
with narrow shoulders. Some have large hands and feet, others 
small, and a few have small hands with large feet. One has a 
mole on his cheek ; another has one on his neck or his nose or 
perhaps none at all. One man has an extra thumb on one hand; 
another has six fingers on each hand. One is bow-legged ; 
another is knock-kneed. Here is a hunchback, there a giant, 
and again we see a dwarf. One is crazy ; another is a criminal. 
Some are handsome and others are ugly. Some are brilliant, 

1 The student may well study this question and show, by written argument, 
how it is that all classes will prosper or suffer together with the farmer. 



46 DOMl'.S'l'K A TK-I) AN'IMAI-S AND PLANTS 

others idiotic. Sonic arc deaf, others lame or blind. Some arc 
deficient by a hand ; others lack a leg. 

Some are musicians, others orators or actors. Some like 
mathematics ; others love literature. Some are farmers, others 
lawyers or engineers. Many succeed ; many fail. Between even 
the traditional twins that " look so nearly alike that their mother 
could not tell them apart," important differences will be found 
if a trained observer looks closely enough. • 

All this is e(|ually true of animals and |)lanls. It is only to 
the untrained that all individuals of the same species look alike. 
Horses diffi-r so much in size, color, conformation, gait, and 
disposition liial it is dilfu-uU indeed to get together a " matched 
span." - Some are intelligent and proud of their work ; others 
are foolish, sluggish, and unreliable. Sheep differ not only in 
the quantity of the fleece but in the fineness of the fiber as well 
as in the density and the evenness of covering,'^ 

No two trees bear apples alike, and even different apples on 
the same tree differ not only in size but in quality. Some 
melons are fine in texlurt- and flavor ; others of e(|ual size are 
"like pumjikins." One tree bears specially luscious i)eaches ; 
another is next to worthless. 

Among wildlings the same jirinciple holds. .Some horses are 
fleeter than others and some wolves more cunning.'* lu'cry 
woods boy knows the bushes that bear the most luscious berries 
and the tree that bears the largest and the best flavored nuts, 

1 Kvcn opposite sides of the same individual arc slightly different. One 
shoulder is higher than the other ; one leg is longer or stronger than the 
other, meaning a longer step and causing lost people to travel in a circle. 
l'",vcrybody is either " right-" or " left-handed," meaning by this that the cor- 
responding side is the better developed and capable of stronger or more 
accurate action. 

2 To the casual observer two iiorsos colored alike are niattlud. hut tiu- 
horseman looks fust to the gait, then to confunnalinTi and size, and last of all 
to the color. 

" The wool is (inest and longest on the sides and liaik, shorlcsl undernealh, 
and coarsest on the thighs. 

■• Read the story of Lobo in " Wild Animals 1 I lave Known," by 'i'hompson- 
Seton. 



NI':i:i) Ol' IMI'ROYKMKN'r 



47 



and every botanist will tell you that we may hunt forever with- 
out liii(lin<;- two plants exaetly alike, so mij^htily are the inati-rials 
mixed out of wjiieh races and individuals are made. This is 
variation or variability, and upon this fact are selection and 
improvement based. 

Variability in a single character. Variability arises in two 
distinctly different ways : first, by different associations of char- 
acters, as when one individual is red and white and another is 
black and white ; and, second, by different degrees of develop- 




Fic. 7. Jersey cow, Figgis 76106, property of ('. 1. Hood & Company, 

Lowell, Massachusetts. Champion and Grand Champion, World's Fair, 

St. Louis, 1904. 547 lbs. 6 oz. butler in 7^ months. Such a cow is worth 

perhaps a dozen of the ordinary kind that make IJ5 lbs. in a year 



iiieiit of the separate eharaeters, as when one indixitlual in 
simply larger or fleeter or darker-colored than another. lather 
<;ives rise to what is known as \ariation. and either may afford 
the basis for natural .selection. 

Ilowever the racial characters may be mixed in different in- 
dividuals, it will be found on close inspection that the separate 
characters are them.selves hij^hly variable ; that is to .say, varia- 
bilit)' is not confined to individuals but is a property of each and 



48 DOMHSl'irAlKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

every character that enters into the composition of individuals 
and of races. 

Thus among sweet apples some are sweeter than others within 
the same variety, and this is true quite independent of color or 
size. Of all the trotting horses in the world some can go in 2 : 40, 
some in 2 : 30, a few in 2 : 20, and a very few in 2 :o5 or less. 

Of a thousand ears of corn taken at random from the same 
field and of the same variety, some will be short and others 
long, while the rest will stand between. This is variability in 
a single character. It is, moreover, a kind of variability that 
can be exhaustively studied by exact statistical methods, — a study 
that is strongly recommended not onl\- for its exactness but for 
its influence in fixing definite notions of t)-pe and that devi- 
ation from type which is called \ariability. These methods of 
study are given in a later chapter, a careful study of which is 
strongly recommended at this point. 

Historical knowledge of original species needed. In order to 
devise practical methods of still further improving the domesti- 
cated races and more completely adapting them to the service 
of men, we need, first of all, to know ever}'thing possible of the 
character of the original species as they lived in a state of nature, 
— how they behaved toward one another and how they prospered 
before man interfered with their affairs. In other words, from the 
way of the wild we can learn substantial lessons as to methods of 
improvement, and this we propose to outline in the next chapter. 

Summary. No plant or animal has yet been brought to its highest state 
of efficiency, though some individuals are vastly superior to others, and vari- 
ability is universal. Besides this, our needs and our desires are constantly 
changing, mostly by way of advance. There is need, then, for still further 
improvement, and the best course to pursue in deciding upon methods is, 
first of all, to study species in a state of nature, where these species existed 
in the wild for many generations previous to domestication. 

Exercises. 1. The student should calculate with as much accuracy as 
possible and report upon the cost of maintaining domestic animals in his 
own neighborhood, especially as influencing the cost of meat and milk 
production. 



NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 49 

2. Let him compute the amount of land and the proportion of our crops 
devoted to the support of our animal population. Let him also estimate the 
relative cost of vegetable and animal food, remembering that a pound of 
meat contains no more nourishment than an equal weight of grain. 

3. Take the domesticated animals and plants one by one and describe 
the changes we should like in each to still better adapt it to our needs, 
going well into the subject ; as, for example, that blue grass would be a 
better pasture grass if it had, or could be given, a deeper rooting habit. 

4. Plant ten ears of corn that look as much alike as possible, each in a 
separate row, and take the yield of each. 

5. With the scales and the Babcock tester test at least ten cows for 
relative amount of fat in the milk. 

6. Point out definite respects in which cows and corn, for example, need 
improvement, and do the same for other animals and plants. 



CHAPTER V 

THE WAY OF THE WILD 

Tlie ast(>nisliinj4' abundance of life- The struggle for existence • Selective 
effect of the natural conditions • Competition for food ■ Competition for room • 
Competition most severe between individuals of the same species • Natural 
selection • Survival of the fittest • The individual and the race • Significance of 
numbers ■ Significance of vigor and length of life • Significance of offensive 
and defensive weapons • Significance of protective coloring and markings • 
Mimicry • Design in nature • Causes of color in animals and plants 

l^efore we can discuss to best advantage the means of futther 
improving our animals and plants it is necessary that we under- 
stand as well as |)ossil)]e the conditions and habits of life to 
which they were accustomed in the natural state before they 
came to us, because out of this we shall evolve a method of 
procediuc tor fiuther improvement. 

The astonishing abundance of life. The most conspicuous 
fact in nature is the astonishing abundance of life and the ex- 
ceeding rapidity with which all living beings multiply. Whether 
animal or plant, large or small, powerful or puny, every species 
multiplies according to tlie laws of geometrical progression, 
each with a ratio of its own. 

The effect of this fact upon mere ntunbers is a point not 
easily comprehended. The fastest-multiplying forms are the 
bacteria, some species of which are able, imder good conditions, 
to double ever\^ twent_\- minutes. At this rate a single individual 
with its descendants would, if uninterrupted, fill all the oceans 
of the earth in an incredibly short space of time. 

A single ear of corn of good size has one thousand kernels, 
and an average ear has, say, six hundred, each capable of repro- 
ducing a similar ear. How long would it take at this rate for 
the product of one ear to cover the ctiltivated earth ? 

50 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 5 I 

Man is one of the slowest of animals to multiply, yet under 
good conditions his numbers may double in twenty-five years ; 
indeed this rate has been maintained in this country because 
the population of the United States has doubled four times in 
the last century, with four wars to reduce numbers. If this ratio 
could continue for another hundred years, we should have by that 
time no less than fourteen hundred millions of people in this 
country, making a denser population than that of China to-day.^ 

Few wild animals are known but will breed faster than man, 
and it takes but slight exercise of the imagination to see how 
reproduction might go on, were there nothing to check it, until 
there would no longer be even standing room on earth for the 
animals alone, to say nothing of their food. 

The possible rate of increase of plants is indeed enormous. 
It is said that the common pigweed ripens from three to four 
thousand seeds, and a large plant of purslane as many as a 
million, explaining one reason why they are such troublesome 
weeds. I^lants that seed thus freely are exceedingly difficult of 
eradication, especially if the seeds are hardy.^ 

Plant lice are still more prolific than weeds. Dr. S. A. Forbes, 
state entomologist of Illinois, is authority for the statement that a 
single corn-root aphis is capable of producing ninety-eight young, 
and that sixteen generations are possible in a single season. At 
half this rate of increase he computes that if the successive off- 
spring of a single female and her descendants for a single season 
could be put upon an acre of land at Cairo at the southern end 
of the state and placed as thick as they could stand, then on 
top of this set another acre, and so on without crushing till the 
end of the season, and if then the column could be tipped to 

1 Showing the extent to which social, economic, and poHtical considerations 
will shortly turn upon our power to feed our people, and that in turn upon 
questions of land fertility. 

2 The cocklebur ripens two seeds in one bur. One of these is larger than 
the other and under equal conditions will germinate first. This weed, there- 
fore, has two distinctly separate chances of propagation with respect to con- 
ditions of germination alone. 



52 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AXD PLANTS 

the north till it should lie upon the fj^nuind, it would reach to 
Chicago (360 miles) and twenty-three miles beyond into Lake 
Michigan ; that is to say, that the descendants of a single 
corn-root louse at half the maximum rate could in a single sea- 
son, if unintermpted, reproduce enough t(j make a solid column 
I acre square and 383 miles long, — a perfectly inconceivable 
number. After this computation it is not difficult to believe the 
truth of the assertion that certain bacteria that can double in 
about twenty minutes would be able in a few days, if unre- 
stricted, to fill all the oceans of the earth. 

With this enormous birth rate it becomes important to study 
carefully the checks to increase, and the various means by which 
hving things have been prevented long ago from absolutely 
overrunning the earth, where standing room, to say nothing of 
food, is limited. What, now, are the conditions and mutual 
relations between these immense numbers of diverse species 
as they live together in a state of nature ? 

The struggle for existence. In general, it may be said that 
species, are indifferent to each other except when interests clash, 
and then one or the other must go under, for the law of the 
wild is that everything lives not where it chooses to live but 
where it is able to live. When so many more individuals are 
produced than can possibly find food and room to survive, there 
ensues at once a battle for life, which has by common consent 
been called, as Darwin named it, the struggle for existence.^ 

This is a many-sided struggle, — a kind of three-cornered 
fight, — first against natural conditions in general, then against 
the competition of other species, and, last of all, against the 
competition of its own kind. This elemental w^arfare, for it is a 
warfare, though generally unknown to the participants and often 
not noticeable except to the trained observer, — this warfare is 

^ In this general connection read " Origin of Species by Means of Natural 
Selection," by Charles Darwin. It is an old and much misunderstood book, 
rather difficult, it is true, but well worth the careful reading of all students of 
life in the wild. 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 53 

always on, and its complications are so many and so intricate 
and its consequences so profound that a little space is well de- 
voted to its analysis. 

Selective effect of natural conditions. There is a blind but 
wholesale struggle of living things against what may be called 
natural conditions, which assert their influence independent of 
struggle against competition with other living beings, and gen- 
erally before it begins. 

First of all are climatic and seasonal influences. Hosts of 
young things, both plant and animal, come into existence only 
to perish on the spot from adverse climatic influences. Many 
species exist, in northern latitudes for example, only by the 
narrowest margin, and one exceptionally hard winter will close 
them out by the millions. In this way whole fields of wheat 
and clover are "winter killed," as we say, and whole forests 
die after an exceptionally dry summer followed by an unusually 
severe winter, 

A sudden freshet may wash away in immense numbers the 
season's crop of seeds of maple, elm, or oak, and send them 
downstream to rot in the lowlands. The same freshet may kill 
a valuable lot of mature timber downstream and change forever 
the flora of the locality.^ 

A wet summer may drown most of the bumblebees, and then 
the farmers need have small expectation as to the crop of clover 
seed, which is dependent upon bees for fertilization. 

A late fall may so stimulate growth in peach trees and other 
tender plants as to prevent that " ripening " of the wood neces- 
sary to a successful endurance of extreme cold. On the other 
hand, a "warm spell " in winter may start the buds, after which 
a " cold snap " will kill outright in a day the prospective crop 
of the year. The apple crop is occasionally lost by late cold 
weather after " setting " of the young fruit. Of course this 

^ When the Chicago drainage canal was dug, many bodies of timber along 
the banks of the Illinois were killed by the new water level established, and 
many damage suits resulted. 



54 DOMKS'I'K \l'i:i) ANIMALS AND PLAN TS 

ixirticular inslancx- has no diivcl (.■fiV'cL upon wnvtalion, but it 
serves to illustrate the aeeident of season and its influemx' upon 
a new erop of seed. 

Extreme and continued rains at j^ollination will reduce the 
yield of corn.^ A hot wind nia\' have the same effect In' kill- 
ing and drying up the tender \-oung silk before the ])ollen has 
opportunity to fertilize. 

Fire plays frightful havoc with vegetation, especiall)- in the 
forest, and utterly prevents the appearance of certain species 
on fire-swept lands ; ^ indeed, few can endure a periodic baptism 
of flame. 

Again, every species has its northern and its southern limits, as 
well as its limits of higher and lower altitudes. As it nears these 
limits it not onl)- exists with greater difficulty, but its existence is 
more precarious, and a little thing will turn the tide for thousands 
of individuals, perhaps temporarily, perhaps permanentl}'. 

The liard winter not only kills vegetation but freezes up the 
water supply and often shuts off the food till bird and beast in 
the melting snows next spring give mute testimony to the 
sufferings they have endured and the losing fight they have 
waged, just as a number of years ago the longspurs were 
caught in passage b\' a Dakota blizzard and were literally killed 
by the millions. 

In this general way what may be called the blind forces of 
nature take their toll of life, and it is a heavv toll indeed, whole- 
sale and sweeping, relentless as fate and tireless as time. 

Competition for food. After all this, however, a heaxy balance 
remains, — a balance always too heavy for the food supply. 

1 This is due to the fact that the pollen grains stick together and fall in 
little pellets rather than singly, as they should, in a fine yellow dust, reach- 
ing each of the thousand silks of a single ear, for every kernel has its in- 
dependent silk. 

2 The jack pine has taken possession of certain old pine lands only because 
it has the habit of holding its cones and shedding its seeds gradually. If, there- 
fore, the tree should be killed, there remains a stock of seed for renewal. All 
other species are e.xterminated by these fierce fires till the ground is again 
reseeded by the slow processes of nature. 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 



55 



Besides, these calamities of climate and season, of fire and flood, 
are occasional and local in their happening, not constant and 
general, so that in a large sense the free and unrestricted in- 
crease of earth's millions is thrown upon the world for main- 
tenance, and there is not enough. The only alternative is a 




Fig. 8. In a fight against snow and cold the bison can hold his own 

wholesale destruction of individuals by starvation, in which the 
strongest alone survive. 

The competition for food is, therefore, the chief element in 
the struggle for existence. There is no common food supply 
for all species, but everything, from the biggest to the littlest, 
from the strongest to the weakest, lives upon its neighbor, and 
it is literally true that the chief concern of each inhabitant of 
the wild, and the one upon which he bestows most of his time 
and his principal attention, is to secure something to eat and to 
avoid, in return, being eaten himself. With one eye on his prey 
and the other on his enemy he balances his chances and gambles 



56 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AM) I'LANTS 

with death every day of his Hfe. — all without reah;:ing either 
the magnitude or the intensity of tlie game he is plaving.' 

The big tish eat the httle ones ; the wolf and the jackal hunt 
beast and bird ; the feathered tribe makes life intolerable t\)r 
beetle, bug, and worm ; and while beak and tooth and claw are 
busy with destruction, the parasite sucks the blood of the depre- 
dator or gnaws his vitals out as he hunts his defenseless prev. 
Nothing is exempt. It is a warfare not onl\- of strength ami 
cunning but of resistance and endurance as well. 

This consumption of one species as food for another is im- 
mensely destructive of individuals. ,\ single large animal in a 
day will consume seeds or small plants literallv b\- the thousand ; 
often, besides, it destroys as much as it eats. It is estimated that 
each cat on the average destroys fifty birds per \ear. One large 
fish will consume immense numbers of small fiy. Most eggs of 
birds serve as food for snakes or other birds. Only a few are 
hatched, and most of these follow the fate of the egg in which 
life was destroyed before it appeared.- 

Broadly speaking, and in general terms, animal life subsists 
upon plant life, and it in turn upon the mass of nonliving matter 
of W'hich the world is made, so that the two together complete 
a kind of cycle, ending where they began, after the animal has 
finished its life and returned to dust. It will not do, however, 
to rest so important a matter on such generalized and imperfect 
statements. Briefly and substantially the facts are as follows : 

All li\ing structures ^ are characterized by more or less highly 
organized compounds, of which carbon, owgen, and nitrogen are 

1 Man is undoubtedly the only animal that has any true kno\vledjj;c (if death, 
or appreciation of it when it has occurred. \ViId animals attack moying things 
and are entirely satisfied with simulated death ; that is, they fight whatever 
moves, but desist when motion ceases unless impelled by hunger, in which case 
they do not wait for cessation of motion, but eat the prey alive or as soon as its 
escape no longer seems likely. 

2 It is impossible to estimate the destruction wrought by such predatory 
animals as the blue jay, the kingbird, the hawk, and the cat. 

^ I?y this is meant the bodies of animals and the stems and leaves of trees 
and plants. 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 57 

characteristic and essential elements. Now the world's supply 
of these important elements is in the form of exceedingly raw 
material floating in the air. Oxygen can be taken in by the leaves 
of plants and the lungs of animals and used at once and directly 
by the organism. Carbon and nitrogen, however, exist in the 
air in a condition useless for the direct needs of either plants 
or animals. 

The great problem of subsistence is therefore, primarily, to get 
carbon and nitrogen, which all animals and plants alike, whether 
large or small, high or low, must secure in large and constant 
quantities in order to maintain life and its activities. 

Now carbon exists in combination with oxygen as CO2. This 
is a very simple but a very stable compound, and in this form no 
animal can use it. Only the green chlorophyll of leaves, and that 
in the presence of sunlight, can break this compact with oxygen, 
and thus the pioneer labor of securing carbon and bringing it 
into more complex compounds, especially those including hydro- 
gen, is, and must be, performed by the higher plants ; and on 
these and their remains must all animals depend for their carbon 
supply, as must also the nonchlorophyll plants like bacteria. 

Of course many animals live on other animals and thus short- 
circuit the carbon problem, just as many bacteria are directly 
parasitic on living plants and even animals. In general, plants 
and animals both take their oxygen direct from the air, but a 
few bacteria and other low forms of plant life depend upon 
getting oxygen as they do carbon, — by taking it from its combi- 
nations, even in a living plant or animal. Such parasites are, of 
course, dangerous to life, and they lie at the base of some of our 
most troublesome plant and animal diseases.^ 

Nitrogen is still more difficult than carbon to bring into the 
combined state. It is a lazy element, and the immense stock in 

1 It would be a mistake to assume that all diseases, even those of a germ 
character, are due to vegetable parasites. It is now generally held that the 
germ of smallpox, for example, is a protozoon, that is, animal rather than 
vegetable, though at this level of life we are down where plants and animals 
shade into each other by almost imperceptible differences. 



58 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

the atmosphere is useless alike to animals and plants except a 
very few species of bacteria which constitute, so far as we know, 
the only means for collecting available nitrogen except the slow 
and irregular action of electricity.^ In this way all life, both plant 
and animal, depends almost absolutely for its nitrogen upon 
bacteria, the smallest of all organisms, invisible to the naked 
eye and so exceedingly minute that a hundred of them placed 
end to end would not reach through the thickness of this sheet 
of paper. On how slender a thread does the life of the world 
depend ! 

Every species, therefore, lives wherever it can find suitable 
food, and does not hesitate to attack another, living or dead, and 
consume its substance either by the rending of its flesh and 
the consequent quick destruction of life, by sucking its juices 
as an external parasite, or even by invading the very body of its 
prey and consuming its vitals with slow destruction. This is 
very common among insects, one species la}'ing its egg in the 
body of another, where it hatches, producing a larva that lives 
at the expense of the host till death ensues, by which time he is 
ready to undergo one of his transformations and afterwards 
""go it alone." ^ 

And so it is that food means indiscriminate slaughter by both 
sudden and lingering methods, so it is that the struggle for 
existence is chiefly fought out at this point, and so it is that the 
food supply is the chief consideration in fixing the prosperity and 
the life tenure not only of individuals but of species as a whole. 

Competition for room. This is no less real than is competition 
for food, but it applies to plants rather than to animals, which 
seldom suffer for mere space. When, however, by chance plants 
come up too thick for standing room, they are bound to suffer 

1 The electric spark serves to combine nitrogen and hydrogen in small 
amounts, but the world's supply of nitrogen is supposed to be dependent upon 
bacterial action. 

'^ It is common for wasps to sting a supply of insects, paralyze them, plant 
an egg in each, and pack them securely away to serve as food for the young 
larvae as they hatch. 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 



59 



and the weakest are doomed. Under such conditions there is, 
of course, a competition for food from the Hmited amount of 
soil at hand, as there is also for moisture in time of drought ; 
but the chief competition is for sunlight. 

All growth in weight of plants is attended by the fixation of 
carbon from the carbon dioxide of the air, but the process is a 
chemical one that takes place only in the direct rays of the sun. 
The growth of plants is therefore absolutely dependent upon 
their leaves being constantly exposed to direct sunlight. When, 
consequently, individuals are closely crowded together, only the 
tallest can push their leaves up into the light, while the others 
are overshadowed and shut away from the only power that can 
put carbon into their structure. Accordingly they must die, not 
exactly from starvation but rather from inability to make use 
of the plant food of the air. 

This is the principal way in which tall, quick-growing weeds 
injure crops by getting the start, and, being able to keep it, they 
kill the crop or greatly check it by shutting off completely or 
partially the direct sunlight. This is why sweet corn and Kafir 
corn are so much more difficult to raise than is Indian corn, 
especially in the moist climate of the so-called corn belt. The 
plants themselves are at first small and slow-growing, while the 
weeds of this region are quick-growing with rank stems and 
broad leaves, which quickly overtop and shut out the sunlight 
from the crop. 

The same effects will follow the attempts to get a " stand " 
of alfalfa unless these weeds are kept cut off. The young alfalfa 
sends up at first but a slender stem with few leaves, and until 
the root is well established it is no match for rank weeds that 
reverse the process, namely, expend their first energies in pro- 
ducing stem and leaf. Indian corn, on the other hand, will, 
with a fair chance, grow almost as fast as any weed, and in any 
event always " keeps its head up." 

We take advantage of this principle in killing especially 
troublesome weeds like Canada thistle and quack grass, which 



6o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

have the underground rootstock. Everybody knows that orcUnary 
cutting or pulHng avails nothing, for they merely send up new- 
shoots from the buds already formed in the running rootstock 
under ground. If, however, this new shoot and leaf are killed 
by cutting off at once, and the next and the next treated in the 
same way as soon as they appear, the plant will die in time, for 
it has but a limited number of " buds" and a limited amount of 
food stored in the stem ; and if it cannot soon get new leaves to 
the sun for more carbon, it must give up the fight and die. Plow- 
ing thoroughly once a week for a single season will kill any weed. 

This struggle from overcrowding is best seen in the growth 
of young trees in the forest. Many more seedlings wdll start 
than can possibly live, for a fully matured tree needs and will 
take a space from ten to fifty and in some cases even one 
hundred feet across. 

Accordingly when young trees stand thick a struggle at once 
ensues as to which shall overtop the others and get to the sun- 
light. The strongest will, of course, be the tallest and get the 
most light. This in turn gives it more carbon and greater 
growth, with still further advantage over its fellows, which 
manage to live as long as they can keep a few leaves in the 
sunlight, and then die when the failure, which is inevitable, 
really comes. 

It is interesting and almost pathetic to sec the extent to which 
this struggle for sunlight and life is sometimes carried. The 
writer once saw a specimen that had recently died out of a 
thicket of young maples. It was thirty-six feet high, yet was 
but one and three-fourths inches in diameter at the largest place, 
so completely had its little growth been converted into height 
at the expense of size in the vain effort to keep its few leaves 
bathed in the precious sunlight. This tree never stood quite 
alone, but leaned helplessly against its stronger neighbors after 
the fashion of a vine. 

Among the trees that remain, the same principle applies as 
between the upper and the lower limbs. As new branches start 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 



6l 



out above in the struggle upward, the lower ones are shaded 
the same as those of the lower- growing trees, and ultimately for 
the same reason die and drop off. In this way trees growing 
in close proximity to each other 
develop tall bare trunks valu- 
able for timber, while those 
growing in the open would not 
be forced upward by competi- 
tion nor would the lower limbs 
be killed. Such trees develop 
beautiful tops, being lighted on 
all sides, but they never make 
timber trees, however old or 
mature.^ 

Competition most severe be- 
tween individuals of the same 
species. At first thought it would 
seem that members of the same 
race would live in peace and 
harmony together, and that the 
competition would be between 
different species only. But that 
is not so. In so far as compe- 
tition exists at all between indi- 
viduals of the same race it is 
the most severe of all. 

In the competition for food, 
whether plant or animal, the 
needs of the same species are 
identical, the methods of growth in plants and the hunting 
habits among animals are the same, and the competition is 
much more direct than where needs are not quite the same 
and habits are somewhat different. 

1 It is suggested that the student verify the foregoing statements by visits 
to weedy fields and to young forests. 




Fig. 9. The best possible condition 
for rapid growth, as it affords oppor- 
tunity for maximum exposure of leaf 
surface. This grapevine consumed 
four years in covering the first ten 
feet of the derrick, but with this 
start it ascended the remaining forty 
feet in one year 



62 DOMESTUA I'Kl) A\IM.\1,S AND I'LANTS 

In respect to room tlic same princii^c holds, rhmts ot" the 
same species have a nearly equal rate of growth, so it is a neck- 
and-neck race from start to finish, and often the stmggle is so 
nearly equal that they all go down together. It is the case of 
Greek meeting Greek over again. 

The best example of this is the familiar one of oversecding. 
Ofttimes the farmer in finishing his seeding of oats or wheat 
will drive across the end of the lieUl to cover unseeded spots. 
In this way much of the strij) thus covered gets a double seed- 
ing. The slender, " spindling " growth of leaf or stem and the 
greatly reduced yield of such places are familiar to all grain 
farmers, as is the general appearance of most fields of "sowed 
corn," where so much seed is put on that there is neither room, 
moisture, nor fertilit}- to mature it all, so the total result is a 
weak, stunted growth of all the plants, engaged as the}- are in 
a mutually destructive competiticMT. 

The fact that a hea\ier \ield of ha\' and jxisture can be jiro- 
duced by ground sown to mixed grasses than when st)wn en- 
tirely to one variety depends partly upon the principle here 
under discussion, and partly, cspeciallv with pastures, upon 
the fact that different sj)ecies take on their best growth at dif- 
ferent seasons of the year, thus lessening by that much the 
direct competition. 

The fiercest battles among animals are not those waged for 
food, which are for the most part exceedingly unequal confiicts. 
They are those waged between the males of the same species, 
which are in almost constant confiict. especialh' during the 
breeding season, those of different species rarely troubling each 
other except for food. 

Among animals that herd in the wild, like horses, cattle, and 
bisons, one mature male in the i)rime of life assumes the leader- 
ship of the herd, and he will maintain it as long as he can 
master an\' vounger aspirant that feels he has attained the 
strength and endurance to tr\- conclusions. Some da\' the success- 
ful aspirant w ill arise and prevail o\er the favorite, who will then 



I'lIE WAV OI' THE WILD 63 

retire to the rear, and tlie- IutcI will accept the new leadership. 
In this way only the very choicest and most vigorous survive 
to head the herd. 

Natural selection. And so the competition f^oes on against 
fire and flood and drought and cold ; against talon, tooth, and 
claw, till the weakling goes to the wall. When there is not 
enough for all, when the dinner of one means the death of 
another, when the problems of life become reduced to the 
elemental instincts of hunger and self-preservation, then 
slaughter begins and death and extermination are everyday 
employments. This is natural selection, or the weeding out of 
the weakest. 

This reduction process of nature is not always attended with 
violence and bloodshed, but is often silent and inconspicuous 
though none the less relentless. The woodpecker digs his worm 
out of his burrow in the timber, and only the longest and hardest 
bill will provide enough when worms are scarce. This compe- 
tition based on quality of bills is not conspicuous, ])ut it is, after 
all, direct and effective. 

A mass of vegetation of many species is growing on the 
same area.^ As none can move they all must stay and fight 
it out together. Now is the struggle for room combined with 
that for food, and it is a battle royal with no noise but with 
plenty of fatalities.^ 

In this selective process the vigor of the conflict and the 
intensity of the selection are much dependent upon conditions, 
whether favorable or unfavorable to life in general. It might 
seem at first that where conditions of life are least favorable, 

1 Try the experiment of counting the number of different things that can 
be found growing together on a square yard of old turf. 

'^ Read " The Battle in the Meadows," by Maxwell T. Masters. This fasci- 
nating little book describes the effect upon the mixed herbage of an old park 
at Rothamsted, England, when fertilizers of different kinds were applied. The 
effect of each upon the struggle between the different species growing 
together, some being favored by nitrogen, for example, and others by potas- 
sium or by phosphorus, constitutes one of the most fascinating nature stories 
ever written. 



64 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND I'LAN'I'S 

the reduction would proceed furthest, but, in general, such is 
not the case. 

For example, many more species of plants will grow together 
on poor land than on rich, and if fertilizer be applied to such a 
spot supporting a feeble growth of many species, their number 
will be at once reduced. 

The reason of it is that under generally hard conditions noth- 
ing succeeds well enough to institute a vigorous fight, but as 
soon as conditions are improved, as by the addition of fertilizer, 
then at once some species will succeed so well as to crowd others 
down and possibly out. This is one test of the natural fertility 
of lands, namely, the number of species found growing together 
upon it in a state of nature ; and the same principle is employed 
by good farmers who make the land so rich that the crop will 
choke out the weeds. ^ 

Survival of the fittest. The result of natural selection is the 
survival of the fittest. This does not mean the best from any 
standpoint of ours, but it does mean the ones that fit best into 
all the conditions that determine the issue of the struggle.^ It 
would be the woodpecker with the longest and hardest bill, the 
wolf with the best scent and the highest speed, the bull with 
the sharpest horn and the strongest neck ; indeed, among savage 
animals it means the supremacy of the longest tooth and the 
sharpest claw. 

Among the hunted it means the horse with the fleetest foot 
and the greatest endurance. It means the deer or moose with 

1 This principle also explains the relative inaction of the desperately poor 
and distressed portion of the degenerate class. If they were better fed, they 
would be more aggressive and consequently more dangerous. So does natural 
selection work among humans as elsewhere. 

2 For example, a savage and a sage may be so situated that skillful running 
alone will save life. Then for that purpose running becomes the test of sur- 
vival, and the savage alone may be able to meet the test, in which case his is 
the best " fit " with the conditions. Under most conditions, however, the sage 
would have the advantage. All this means that the best trained man is the 
one that is able to meet and fit into the greatest variety of conditions that are 
likely to come his way. 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 65 

the most inconspicuous color. For example, the white color of 
the albino deer, shown on page 102, would be against him, as it 
would be in favor of the polar bear with his different surround- 
ings. It means the bird or beast most successful in hiding or 
in eluding its pursuers, and everything which helps in this will 
help to make the '" fit " more perfect and thereby to more 
certainly insure survival. 

With plants it means the fastest-growing stem which will 
most certainly reach the sun, or the deepest-running root which 
alone will secure moisture in time of drought ; it means the most 
spiny covering which protects best against herbivorous animals, 
the most showy flowers or the most penetrating odors which best 
assure fertilization, or the most toothsome and conspicuous seeds 
which best attract bird or squirrel to carr)^- off and bury, some 
portion of which is never recovered. These are the circum- 
stances that determine the fitness to survive. 

On careful study it will be seen that eveiy species has some 
natural trait or character, which, in a state of nature, enabled 
it to survive, else it would not be here now ; and of this 
species the individuals that possess this character in the great- 
est perfection are the ones that best withstand the rigors of 
natural selection. Species and individuals not possessing such 
natural advantages at once become extinct, as do those whose 
advantage is rendered worthless by some sudden change in 
the surroundings. 

For example, the natural advantage of the birds generally is 
their aerial flight and their powers of rapid reproduction ; with 
the yellow butterfly it is his offensive taste ; wdth the caterpillar 
it is his hairy covering, which, like the spines of the porcupine, 
are unpleasant to the attacking party ; with the cat tribe it is 
the prehensible claw and the silent tread ; with the antelope it 
is his wonderful scent and his fleetness ; with the pig it is his 
long snout with its remarkable rooter ; with the elephant it is 
his trunk ; with the beaver it is his tooth and his tail ; with the 
snake it is his venom and his incurving teeth ; with the sheep, 



66 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

bighorn, and chamois it is the abiUty to climb wlicrc onh' the 
eagles can follow, and to take flying leaps from crag to crag. 

All species and individuals not possessed of some such natural 
advantage, or with whom the advantage has been rendered worth- 
less, go down early in the struggle. Of course such great natural 
calamities as fire and flood, making wholesale destruction, take 
ever)'thing both good andJpad, fit as well as unfit. Such events 
come so infrequently and so suddenly that nothing can meet 
their exactions. 

The fate of species, however, is not settled by these sudden 
and calamitous events except in rare cases and for certain 
localities.^ This fate is settled by the slow and relentless method 
we have described, in which literally thousands of every species 
undertake to supply the cravings of hunger and the needs of 
life to the best of their ability, but go down in the struggle to 
defeat and death, while others carry on the struggle with occa- 
sional success. These alone count in the line of descent. 

The individual and the race. It is, indeed, a savage picture 
that we draw when we attempt to depict nature at work in her 
workshop with hving beings for her tools and her materials. 
Everything is relentlessly pursuing its own advantage and spend- 
ing its time in killing and eating or in being eaten in turn as it 
surrenders to the inevitable, — a savage tearing mass of animated 
matter spurred on by instincts not understood and by impulses 
incapable of comprehension, the end of which sooner or later, 
whether successful or unsuccessful in the struggle, is death. 

Looked at in this large way, life at best is but a doleful picture, 
for, as some one has remarked, the life of every animal in the 
wild is a constant terror and its end a tragedy. The pathos of 

^ It is more than likely that such sweeping changes as the glacial epoch do 
operate to exterminate species at wholesale off the face of the earth. Instances 
arc not wanting where species have been stranded by the retreating glacier, 
such as the wild primrose on Mount Washington and on the north side of a 
single ledge in southern Michigan. Many species, too, were swept off as the 
glacier advanced, and were unable to return with its retreat, as in England, 
which has a much simpler flora than has France, just across the Channel. 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 67 

this fruitless struggle of millions as they stem the tide with diffi- 
culty for a moment, then join the inevitable stream of death, and 
the apparent heartlessness of it all, lead us sometimes to question 
the plan and to wonder if, after all, life is worth the living. 

This is a gloomy view, however, to take of life, whether 
animal, plant, or human. There is another and a brighter picture, 
if only we will clear our vision to its gerception. 

Existence is a great mystery. The individual is but a unit in 
a gigantic plan — a never-ending, always-changing panorama 
of life. As Shakespeare says, "All the world 's a stage, and all 
the men and women merely players." Each acts his part and 
says his lines, then passes off, giving place to another, that the 
great drama may proceed and the whole picture be presented. 
The individual, therefore, is fleeting, but his race goes on forever, 
or as long as the balance of life is in its favor ; and one of the 
duties of the individual is to help preserve that balance, which 
he often does by surrendering his life.^ 

Among the lower species the grade of intelligence does not 
enable the individual to see the plan or even to know the issues, 
much less to anticipate its fate.'^ Accordingly it derives its en- 
joyment day by day in living its life, seeking its food, and 
rearing its young as if it were to live forever, and when the un- 
consciously approaching end comes — a brief struggle, lasting 
but a moment, and all is over. So nature is, after all, happy, for 
the tragedies of life are mostly unknown in advance, they pass 
quickly when they come, and are soon softened if not forgotten. 

If only the fittest survive, then will the next generation be 
born of highly selected parents, and so will the race progress. 
This is evolution ; and whatever the place of the individual in 
the scheme, the race as a whole is bound to advance. Though 

1 In the time of war men do not count their Hves in the struggle to preserve 
the nation or to repel invaders, any more than they have counted the cost of 
human liberty. 

2 As has been remarked already, the animal has no knowledge of death or 
of the meaning of life. Man is probably the only one that has the slightest 
intimation that life is limited. 



68 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

the plan seems heartless, it is, after all, beneficent, when we 
regard the future and the coming generations as well as the 
present and the individuals. 

So there is another and a brighter picture. We humans have 
been given a larger view of life than have the animals about us, 
and while we cannot comprehend all the plan, we cheerfully 
devote our lives not solely to our own enjoyment but also to 
that larger service to mankind in general, to the end that future 
generations may be the happier because of our having lived. 
Just as we are realizing the advantages of what our forefathers 
did for the world before us, so w-e make our contribution for 
the benefit of those that shall come after us. 

It is for us, therefore, to recognize the fact of this great w-ar- 
fare in nature, and in man's affairs as well, without permitting 
it to embitter life ; and to order our own lives and their activities 
to the advantage of the common good, getting our satisfaction 
day by day as we go along in the consciousness of faculties well 
employed, thankful after all for the opportunity to live, to enjoy 
the world, to contribute our share to the great upward struggle 
of the race, and to act our part and say our lines in the great 
drama of existence, all of which is a part of the divine plan, 
too large for our comprehension, just as the stars are too many 
and too far away, and the universe too vast and too complicated, 
for our understanding.^ 

In proportion as we see the distinction between the in- 
dividual and the race, in that proportion will we understand 
the true meaning of the " great debt to nature," and w-e will 
come to appreciate that the principle, "to him that hath shall 
be given," is not so much for personal benefit as for the 
general good. 

1 This digression is made for the reason that many, especially young people, 
not knowing thoroughly the field of evolution but stumbling upon a portion 
of it by accident, are led to gloomy, short-sighted, and morbid views of life. 
It is hoped that as the subject is further pursued, the discussion may make 
clear many of the points which trouble the minds of many people often 
through life. 



IHE WAY OF THE WILD 69 

Significance of numbers. In so far as natural selection is a 
contest between different species the question of relative numbers 
is an important one, because the hazard of a good " fit " is greatly 
reduced with increasing numbers. Rare and slow-multiplying 
species not only run the chance of few good fits with the environ- 
ment, but they recover slowly after disastrous experiences. 

The stronghold of insect life is their rapid reproduction. A 
succession of adverse seasons may seem to have almost, if not 
quite, exterminated some troublesome species, but a few espe- 
cially hardy and resistant individuals manage to live over, and, 
with their rapid breeding powers, soon produce a new stock even 
more vigorous than before. This is improvement by natural 
selection. In this way adversity is good for the species, — 
though fatal to most individuals, — and, providing only enough 
can live through to restock the region, the species will be rapidly 
modified by the selective process. 

When it is a troublesome insect or weed that is involved, we 
are not interested in its prosperity, but the same principle applies 
to valuable species even in domestication. For example, it is 
the pigs that produce large litters whose descendants finally 
constitute the herd, while some favorite may, from sheer lack of 
breeding powers,^ leave nothing behind. 

The perfectly wholesale production of seed by plants in gen- 
eral is, to a considerable extent, an offset against their natural 
disadvantage in being fixed as to habitat and unable to move 
away from undesirable conditions to find better ones. 

Significance of vigor and length of life. This is of even more 
importance to the race than is rapid reproduction. The experi- 
ences of life make the mature individual of higher usefulness 
than the younger, especially with races in which the young are 
cared for and to some extent trained by the parents. 

1 Farmers often fail to notice the operation of this principle, and keep many 
breeding animals because they are favorites in form or have fine pedigrees, 
when they are doing practically nothing as breeders. The herd will of course 
consist of the descendants of prolific breeders, which alone can produce 
numbers sufficient to afford material for good selection. 



yo DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

It the i;ivat probK'in in cxistciKc is llic poriK'tuaiion t)f the 
species, then the individual helps the object forward in either 
one of two ways, — by reproduction to insure new numbers, or 
by improvinj:^ conditions of life, thus reducing selection and 
lengthening existence. 

The number of any race at any given time, therefore, is quite 
as much dependent upon the length of life as it is upon the rate 
of reproduction ; ^ indeed, man)- disappearing races of men are 
slowly failing in the face of rajjid rej:)roduction because the in- 
di\iduals are not well enough conditioned to attain full and ripe 
maturity and establish and maintain good conditions of life. 

This principle is of special application in the breeding yards. 
Suppose, for example, the farmer has three classes of cows of 
different degrees of fertility, — one that will raise but two calves, 
one that will raise four, and one that will raise six, before they 
die or stop breeding ; and suppose, for sake of the illustration, 
that the descendants will do the same respectively. Remem- 
bering now that onlv half the descendants will be females, let 
us see how the account would stand with these three classes 
of cows and their descendants, say, at the end of the fifth 
generation ."^ 

TiiK Mi:ANi\f; ok 1\KLAti\'I': FicKTn.nv 



Classes 


Female 
offspring 






Generations 






First 


Second 


Third Fourth 


Fifth 


First .... 


I 


I 


I 


I 


I 


I 


Second . . . 


2 


2 


4 


8 


16 


32 


Third .... 


3 


3 


9 


27 


81 


243 



It is easy to see that cows of the third class and their de- 
scendants would not only soon constitute the herd but afford 
abundant material for selection in the meantime. It is so with 



^ Race suicide that is now so much talked about is not so much a matter of 
the size of families as is commonly supposed ; it is quite as much involved in 
the matter of health and long life. - .See " Principles of lireeding," p. 199. 



THK WAV OK TIIK WIIJ) 



71 



wild species ; the new f^enerations and, in the end, the stable 
stock is constantly arising, not from the general mass, but 
from a few exceptional family lines of great vigor, long life, 
and fair fecundity.^ 

Significance of offensive and defensive weapons. It has been 
remarked before that man is the only animal able to use weapons 
other than those with which nature endowed him. Some of 
these natural endowments are, however, remarkable both in 
their character and their usefulness. 

It is natural for any intelligent being to make use of any part 
that will help either in defending himself from his enemies or 
in assisting him in taking his food. In this essential business 
some make use of one part, others of other parts. 

In general, the extremities are likely to be covered with hard 
and often more or less sharp or cutting parts. If so, they are 
exceedingly useful to the possessor as means of inflicting injury 
by blows, puncture, or tearing. Horns, hoofs, teeth, and toe- 
nails are mighty weapons on the earth, and when the same 
species happens to have two or three of these natural weapons 
well developed at the same time, he is a formidable enemy. A 
notable instance is found in the tiger and the cat family generally. 
The grizzly bear has both tooth and claw terribly developed, but 
his claws are not retractable, and he is incapable of the stealth 
of the tiger.2 

Not all species are armed with such terrible weapons, though 
every one has some advantage sufficient to enable it to secure 

1 It is so with people. Comparatively few individuals alive now will be in 
any way represented in the blood lines that people the world five hundred or 
even one hundred years from now. The people then living will trace their 
ancestry to a few of the most vigorous and virile, but not necessarily the most 
prolific, of existing families. The future of the human as well as other species 
depends quite as much upon quality and longevity as upon numbers. 

2 Enthusiastic amateur students of natural history often descant upon the 
beneficence of nature in thus providing her children with certain means of 
getting food, forgetting, it must be, the interests of the victim and assuming 
a partiality between the species that does not exist. Nothing was made es- 
pecially to be eaten, nor are all the favors bestowed on a few species (see a 
later paragraph on Design in nature). 



72 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

its food, else it would not have persisted ; and species not so 
endowed, of which there have been many, have long since 
disappeared from the earth. It is only when the food is alive 
and able to fight or run that weapons of offense are useful 
except to rival males in battle. Herbivorous animals, like cattle, 
and vegetarians general]}" do not need weapons of offense and 
commonly do not possess them, though tiiere are abundant 
exceptions. 

The ostrich, for example, has no need of weapons of offense 
and its great speed constitutes sufficient defense ; yet it can use 
its strong leg to advantage as a weapon in striking. The giraffe 
is without weapons, offensive or defensive, and cannot exist in 
the presence of enemies except those he can outrun. The ele- 
phant's trunk is primarily useful as a feeder, but he uses it upon 
occasion as a weapon of terrible execution. 

For the most part the snake has no weapon but his teeth. 
Some parahze by venom, but most of them are comparatively 
helpless, ha\'ing no extremities but a harmless head and a use- 
less tail. If, as in most cases, they are armed with incurving 
teeth, the victim once caught cannot well get awa\- ; but in gen- 
eral the snake must swallow the prey alive or kill it in the only 
way possible, namely, bv crushing with its own body, — a most 
awkward but terribly effective way of getting on. 

A few animals like the skunk are able to discharge an offen- 
sive secretion to a considerable distance and thus manage to 
secure a pretty wide berth. Others, like the hyena, ^ can dis- 
charge a liquid not particularly offensive but directed with con- 
siderable accuracy and disconcerting effect. 

A few lucky fellows like the hedgehog, whose custom it is to 
let others alone, are so provided that they can roll themselves 
into a ball and defy the world. Others, like the squirrel, not 
so endowed must show a clean pair of heels. 

^ Said to be the only animal that hates everything and everybody, itself 
included. Practically incapable of taming, it never forms friends among either 
animals or attendants. 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 73 

Some utterly useless species are well protected. The miser- 
able little grass, DanthoJiia spicata, that grows freely over New 
England hills is thickly studded at the base of the stem with 
short but sharp hairy spines that cattle avoid. The nettle is 
covered with fine needlelike hairs which on contact discharge 
minute bits of acid capable of giving a burning sensation to 
people and thin-skinned offenders, but useless with most wild 
animals. The thistle, however, has a weapon worth while. 

Speaking generally, weapons of offense or defense, especially 
the former, are good things to have, and when present are gen- 
erally made the most of ; but when absent another way is sought, 
and if one good enough is found, the species can be successfully 
preserved without weapons, as is the case with the antelope and 
deer, which are the gentlest of animals. 

It is notable, however, that the character or part on which 
the species depends most for its existence is most highly de- 
veloped, even though in other respects the animal or plant may 
be very defective. This, of course, is due to the fact that the 
effects of natural selection have been long felt in that particular 
part, while others have been neglected and left undeveloped. In 
this connection compare the remarkably efficient trunk of the 
elephant with his exceedingly awkward feet, which belong not 
to this but to prehistoric times, and have remained practically 
undeveloped and unchanged since the earliest ages. 

Space could be filled indefinitely with this vast and most in- 
teresting phase of the subject. The important point is, however, 
to note the fact that while weapons are convenient they are not 
indispensable, and that some species that have the least use for 
them have some of the best ones, — bees, for example, — though 
whether in remote times they may have been more useful we 
can hardly say with confidence, because sometimes a sudden 
change in the surroundings renders useless a part that before 
was next to indispensable. Fig. 10 represents a tropical butter- 
fly that spends much of its time on stakes and stubs where it is 
practically indistinguishable from the lichens, especially as it has 



'4 



DOMKSI'U'A rKl) ANIMALS AND I'l.W I'S 



the habil of resting' with its \vini;s spread tlat and not folded 
back, as is eharaetoristic of m^st species of the butterth'. 

Significance of protective coloring and markings. Otiite akin 
to tiie utihty of weajx^ns is tlie whole matter of protective color- 
iiii;. H\- this is meant in i;eneral that ci>lor or an assemblage 
of colors which so blends with the stirroundings as to make 
creatiuvs inconspictiotis on the one hand, or, on the other, to 
look like somethin;^ which thev are not. as. for exanijile. when 
an insect or animal is colored similar to the pxiund or the foli- 
ai^e it inhabits, or when it looks like anotiier species that is 





Fir., lo. Lower and upper surface respectively of ./;<v<'///i/ /t/vnu! (author's 
specimen) ; general color, a greenish gray 

commonl\- dreaded and avoided. Such iitilil\- is mainly defen- 
si\e. though ow occasion it mii;ht facilitate the approach of an 
animal upon its prev. 

At close range the high colors — red. green, blue. etc. — stand 
out distincth', but in the distance all colors tend to blend into a 
theoretical white, in fact, a diit\' g"ra\-, as may be noted when 
viewing" a distimt scene where the earth and sky line meet 
almost imperceptiblv.^ Artists know this fact and use the grays 
for distant effects except when under strong sunlight. 

This explains wh\- so man\ animals that live more or less in 
the open are ot a ilirt\ brown or gra\' (.olor. 0[ all shades it is 



' On thf principli- (hat all colors taken together make white. In nature al 
colors do not e.\ist in proper proportions and the general result is a gray. 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 75 

most inconspicuous in the greatest variety of surroundings. ^ 
Thus deer and moose feed in safety both in winter and summer 
where they wc^uld be in far more danger if their coats were red 
or black ; indeed, adaptation has gone so far in these animals 
that the coat is lighter in winter than in summer, and thus 
blends still better as the foliage gives place to snow. 

The most highly colored birds are those that live among the 
foliage and flowers of the tropics. Snakes and lizards closely 
imitate the dull colors of the grounds they infest, and while 
the resemblance is not close, it is more effective than would at 
first seem possible. Many insects are as green as the leaves 
they sit upon, often for no other reason than that the green 
chlorophyll from the leaves they have eaten shows through 
the thin texture of their bodies. Others, like these shown in 
Fig. 10, are variously colored in close resemblance to their most 
frequent habitat. 

Mimicry. Closely akin to protective coloring is mimicry ; 
indeed, mimicry is the idea of protection carried a step further, 
in which the resemblance is not so much to the background as 
to some other specific object. 

On the border line of the two is the peculiar marking of the 
zebra, the tiger, and the leopard, which at first thought would 
seem to make them conspicuous. However, the facts are that 
such a striped or spotted animal lies well hidden in the thicket 
or the jungle, for the peculiar markings and outlines of his body 
are not quickly distinguishable from the lights and shadows 
which the sunshine casts about him. 

True mimicry, however, is more exact, and some cases are 
quite remarkable. Of all created things butterflies are able to 
show the best cases of mimicry from their remarkable colora- 
tion and from the general resemblance of the structure of their 
wings to that of leaves. For an example of color mimicry refer 

1 This is the reason why the United States has abandoned the blue uni- 
form and the liritish the red for the dirty-looking but really serviceable and 
inconspicuous khaki. 



76 



iHmi'SI'k'A IKl) AMMAl.S AND IMANIS 



again to l-^ii;. lO. Like most ooloivd insects this InuiiTtK piv- 
tcrs localities colored like hiniselt. and he otten lights anil sits 
for a considerable time on trees ami poles more or less covered 
with lichens, from which he is indistini;uishable except on the 
closest scrntinx". 

This is true mimiciy. The remarkable \x\vt of this particular 
case is the habit of lightini; and the manner of sittini^-. The 
butterflies as a rule fold the wings together on the Ixick im- 
mediately upon lighting-, but this particular species, instead I'i'i 
folding the wings, spreads them flat and sits with them in that 
position. The resemblance to the lichen is not \er\ exact, but 





Fkt. 1 1. Lower and upper surface respectively of Aiuca phiailc (autlior" 
specimen), a tropical butterfly of the color of a dead leaf 



it is close in a general wa\'. and the writer has often studied 
tor some minutes \o lind the specimen and make inii the 
outlines even when he had seen the creature in the ver\- act 
o{ lighting. 

Mimicry in structure is illustrated bv another butterH\-, which, 
with its wings folded together, exhibits a venation quite like 
that of a small leaf of the beech or similar tree. Being of a 
brown cokn-. its resemblance to a dead leaf is close. It has twc^ 
veiy different methods of lighting. Commonlv it folds its wings 
not after lighting but before, in which case it flutters to the 
ground not unlike a dead leaf falling from the tree. In other 
cases it lights directly ujion twigs or stems, in whicli instance it 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 77 

lights as would any other species, but stands with the hinder 
points of its wings close to the stem, the other portion standing 
out like a dead leaf not yet fallen. The peculiar long-drawn- 
out p(;int at the rear of the wing, from its close resemblance to 
the stem of the leaf, heightens the deception (see Fig. 11). 

Instances could be multiplied indefinitely showing how one 
form in nature imitates or more properly resembles another, 
generally to the advantage of one or the other, if not of both. 
For example, certain flies without stings closely resemble bumble- 
bees, not only in general appearance but also in manner of flight. 
The resemblance might be closer, but it no doubt is some ad- 
vantage to the impostor and insures him a wider berth from 
boys, at least until they learn the imposition, after which its 
advantage is a matter of doubt, as any boy can testify who has 
had the satisfaction of tormenting " shade bumblebees." 

Design in nature. The consistent student must not interpret 
these and similar facts too literally. The hasty observer and 
careless writer sees " design " in every detail. The fact is that 
in nature there are many resemblances of structure between 
widely separated species, and it is inevitable that similarities 
should occur. When once they happen to be of selective value, 
then natural selection rapidly shapes them up and makes the 
resemblance closer still. 

For example, the flat, thin structure of the leaf requires some 
system of ribs and veins for its support. The wing of the 
butterfly has the same structural necessity and for the same 
mechanical reason. The two structures, therefore, the one plant 
and the other animal, are built and must be built upon a similar 
plan. It is inevitable, therefore, that there should be many close 
structural resemblances, and as the butterfly takes his initial 
color from the green of the leaf, these resemblances are often 
still further heightened by remarkable color effects. In many 
ways, therefore, butterflies resemble foliage. 

Causes of color in animals and plants. The world owes no 
little of its beauty to the range and variety of color of its plants 



yd> DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

and animals, and it is worth the while to note briefly how nature 
produces such marvelous effects in such natural ways.^ 

Colors of animals and plants are due to the following' distinctly 
different causes : 

I . The manufacture of specific coloring materials or pigments 
either as a necessary part of the body activities or as a matter 
of accident. For example, the universal green color of plants is 
due to chlorophyll, the blue of which fades as the leaf ages or 
yields to the influence of cold, leaving the yellow behind to char- 
acterize the foliage of autumn.^ The green of birds is due to 
a specific pigment with no physiological function like that of 
chlorophyll ; it is a color never found in mammals. 

Red, on the other hand, is widely dift'used among both plants 
and animals. The red color of blood is due always to haemo- 
globin, a substance also produced by a great variety of organisms. 
Red pigments, however, are produced by plants, especially in the 
flowering parts and in the leaves of certain species, rarely during 
the growing period, but more commonly late in the season. 

Yellow, whether in plant or animal, is the result of an oily 
pigment, and the three pigments, yellow, blue, and red, in vary- 
ing proportions and distribution are capable of producing about 
every color found in nature, though browns, blacks, and even 
occasionally whites are the result of specific pigment.^ 

1 We have a habit of mind which leads us to feel that when an event or 
occurrence is known to be natural, then all mystery is cleared away. This 
attitude of mind is wrong, and it deprives us of some of our chief opportunities 
for higher meditation. We plant a seed and it grows into a tree. We say, 
" There is no mystery in that, — it was natural " ; but the truth is that if we really 
consider all that has happened, we shall see that a greater miracle has been 
performed than the making of the dumb to speak, the blind to see, or even the 
raising of a man from the dead. With all of our philosophy and all of our 
science we know nothing about life, — -whence it comes or how it works; we 
only know some of the things it does. 

2 The student is reminded that green is not a primary color, but a mixture 
of yellow and blue. 

•' The student will remember that the so-called three-color process of print- 
ing succeeds in reproducing practically all colors by the proper mingling of 
these three primaries — red, yellow, and blue. Nature does the same. 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 79 

2. Closely akin to this is a second cause of color, namely, a 
body surface so delicate and transparent that the color of the 
creature is fixed by that of the internal parts, as in certain earth- 
worms, in which the color is due to the blood showing through 
the transparent skin, while in related species a dark surface pig- 
ment obscures the blood and gives its own color to the worm. 
In other cases, as frequently in larvae, which do not have red 
blood, the contents of the digestive tract show through the skin 
and give color to the insect. In this way all leaf -feeding larvae 
that have transparent skins are green in color ; that is, they look 
green, though that which gives the color is only the chlorophyll 
of their food. 

3. Very similar to the above is a class of cases in which the 
pigment, instead of being fixed at the surface, as in hair or skin, 
is contained in irregular-shaped cells extending from the surface 
to considerable depths beneath the skin. When the creature is 
at rest or in its normal conditions, the pigment lies near the 
surface and gives its color to the animal ; but if it be paralyzed 
with sudden fright, the surface layers of the skin contract and 
drive the coloring matter into the deeper layers and out of sight, 
so that the creature undergoes a blanching process quite akin 
to the sudden paling of the face when the blood is driven out 
of the surface veins by sudden fright. 

4. A fourth cause of color, especially in animals, is the storing 
away in the cells of the body of certain waste materials taken in 
with the food and not digested or otherwise eliminated from the 
body. A common example of this is the color of many butter- 
flies whose larvae feed freely upon leaves. If the chlorophyll is 
not digested or otherwise changed, it is packed away, especially 
in the cells of the wings, either uniformly or in more or less 
regular patterns dependent on the structure. In such a case 
the butterfly would necessarily be green. 

If, however, it should secrete some material that would dis- 
solve out the blue part of the green, either wholly or in part, the 
butterfly would be yellow, either all over or in spots. If, however, 



8o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

the yellow should be dissolved a\va\-, then the creature would 
be blue, either wholly or partially, unless indeed it should 
also secrete red pigment, which would then discharge its own 
function in fixing tints which, with tlie blue, would extend to 
violet or even black. 

Another very different case of the same order is the white or 
light color quite common to the under scales of snakes and 
lizards, an effect due principally to the storage there of lime, as 
we store the same substance in our bones, coming in both cases 
from the food. With them it is a thoroughlx- waste product, as 
it is with us late in life after the bones are finished, when it 
often makes trouble by collecting in the bladder or kidneys in 
the form of small stones. 

5. The scintillating effect like the metallic luster of certain 
plumage is due not to pigment but to strictly mechanical causes. 
In the humming bird, for instance, the surface of the feathers 
is covered with minute striae, which, by their unequal reflection 
and slight refraction of the light rays, give that beautiful play of 
colors with which we are all familiar, and which is not greath' 
different in its character from the play of colors in pearl, which 
is also due to the fact that the pearl consists of exceedingly 
thin laminae laid one upon another. 

6. There is still one more cause of colcM'ation worth niention- 
ing here. In a desert where everything is of a dull gray there 
is practically no white light, because certain rays are absorbed 
by the universal monotony of nature. If there is no white 
light, then nothing will appear in its natural colors, but every- 
thing will appear to be of a dull gray, because there are no 
other colors at hand to be reflected to the eye, just as in an 
artificial red light everything appears red, no matter what its 
color might be in perfect light, because there are no other rays 
to be reflected. 

The student needs to be exceedingly careful, therefore, in 
generalizing about color markings and utility. The color, es- 
pecially of animals, is often highly protective, and then natural 



THE WAY OF THE WILD 8 1 

selection tends to make it more so. On the other hand, the 
color may be unfortunate, in which case the species will go 
through the world with a perpetual handicap, except as selection 
is able to tone it down and relieve it of some of its hardship. 

Color is not based upon utility, nor is it dependent for its 
function upon the presence of light. Some of the most brilliantly 
colored fishes reside in the depths of the sea, so remote that no 
ray of light ever reaches them. Everything must have some 
relation to light and therefore will have some color when brought 
into its rays. If it reflects them all, it will be white ; if it absorbs 
them all and reflects none, it will be black ; if it absorbs all but 
the red, it will reflect those rays and we will call it red ; if it 
absorbs the red and reflects only the yellow and the blue, we will 
call it green, and so on with the infinite changes and combinations 
that result through the relations of absorption and reflection. 

So we might go on indefinitely, showing how fits and adapta- 
tions, with startling accuracy, arise after all in perfectly natural, 
not to say inevitable, ways. These details are not the result of 
design but of accident.^ The design lies much farther back in 
the great scheme of life, infinitely more complex and wonderful 
than these details that strike our attention, and which exhibit 
rather the variety of nature's design than a deliberate intent at 
duplication or a determination to favor one species over another. 

With this glimpse into the way of the wild we are prepared 
for a somewhat detailed discussion of the principal facts involved 
in the further adaptation of animals and plants to the needs and 
purposes of man. 

1 Those who might be inclined to object to the statement that every detail 
in nature is in a large sense accidental should consider such cases as the sloth, 
which is a grayish green in his natural haunts, but in captivity gradually loses 
the greenish tinge and fades out to a dull gray. The reason of this is that the 
greenish tinge was originally no part of the sloth, but was due to the green 
chlorophyll of the minute algae that are enabled to live upon its hair, the 
moist climate and the sluggish habits of the creature being both favorable to 
the vegetable growth. Any number of equally striking instances could be 
given to show that color is in its origin largely accidental. Of course under 
natural selection only the more favorable cases could survive. 



82 nOMHSriCATKI) ANIMALS AND PI, AN IS 

Summary. Infinitely more individuals are born into the world than can 
possibK find room antl f(Hxl. This sets ii]) a struggle for ft>od and room 
and the right to ii\e. under which the fittest alone survive to reproduce 
their kind. 

In this wav the race is modified or improved, because each succeeding 
generation is born, not from average indi\iduals, but from those that are 
best able to meet the demands. If conditions remain constant, in a few gen- 
erations the " fit " becomes close ; but if the conditions change, the standard 
of fitness and selection changes also, which necessarily results in a modi- 
fication of the race in a new direction, the principle beitti;; tluxt ivhate^'er 
iiappens to iiidivitiiials, tJw race as a li'JioIe will respond to selection front 
whate^'er standiini tufntinisfcrcif. Jliis is tJie principle on wliicli tlie 
breeder operates, t/ioiit^/i //is standards of se/ection are t/te ones that meet 
his needs, and may not be the same as those of nature. 

Exercises. 1. Estimate the number of seeds in a robust plant of purslane, 
pigweed, or plantain. 

2. Ascertain the number of kernels on a single ear of corn, and calcu- 
late how long it woukl take ime ear to produce seed enough to plant the 
entire state. 

3. Outline the causes that prevent the unlimited increase of various 
species, especiallv man and the animals and plants most closely related to 
his affairs. 

4. Make original studies into the different methods by which the most 
troublesome weeds persist in spite of our most persistent efforts to eradicate 
them ; for example, Canada thistle, morning-glory, ragweed, purslane. 

5. How is it that weeds " come up *' in new lands never before culti- 
vated, and what are the various wavs by which birds and other animals 
carry weed seeds ? 

6. Go to the fields and observe the various ways by which seeds trans- 
port themselves, especiallv bv wind and water. Make studies of definite 
species and describe carefullv their habits of seed distribution : {or example, 
wild cherry, thistle, cocklebur. 

References. 1. " Origin of Species " (especially chaps, iii and iv). Darwin. 

2. " Uarwiniana." Asa Gray. 

3. " Darwinism." Wallace. 

4. " Color of Animals." Ik-ddard. 



CHAPTER VI 
EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION 

Natural selection means progressive development • Effect of selection upon 
the individual • Selection good for the species that can endure it • Selection 
fatal to a race that cannot endure its hardships- Interest of the individual 
and the race not identical ■ A close fit between a species and its environment 
is inevitable • Apparent exceptions due to absence of severe selection • 
Adaptation not necessarily perfect • Our standards of selection differ from 
those of nature • Not all the results of natural selection are useful to us • 
Our standards often require much readjustment of domesticated species • 
Natural selection always at work • Power of selection to modify type 

Natural selection means progressive development. Natural 
selection and the survival of the fittest mean progressive develop- 
ment for the species, because each new generation is born, not 
from an average, but from a highly selected parentage, limited 
to the few that best fit the conditions of life as a whole. This 
means that each new generation is a little better born than the 
last, and that the " fit " becomes a little closer with each genera- 
tion, till it becomes approximately perfect if conditions remain 
constant, all of which is to be counted an improvement of the 
species as measured by natural standards. 

P^or example, the bills of woodpeckers are bound to become 
a little longer and a little better adapted to the needs so long 
as selection continues, because all below a certain standard are 
being constantly exterminated. Moreover, in many cases, the 
standard of selection is likely to rise as time goes on, working 
still further improvement. Thus deer and wolves frequently 
run wild in the same regions. The deer live upon vegetation, 
but the wolves live upon the deer. Both depend on their legs, 
the one for pursuit, the other for protection. Under conditions 
such as these, the slow and the crippled deer would be first 

83 



84 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

killed off, and the fleetest would go seot free. On the other 
hand, the fleetest wolves would be best fed and the laggards 
would die of hunger. In this way both species would develop 
high speed and great wariness, and this development would pro- 
gress further and further as the competition grew keener with 
each passing generation. The horse has almost certainly come 
up through a similar experience in ages past. 

Effect of selection upon the individual. This effect is two- 
fold. Llrst of all, it sharpens the wits of the individual if he 
has any, and develops to the utmost whatever faculties he may 
possess. If b\' this he is able to withstand the competition, he is 
in every way the better for it. 

If, however, as generall)- happens where the selective j^rocess 
is severe, it is only the few that are able to withstand, then the 
masses will go down in the struggle ; so that the total efiects 
of selection may be said to be hard upon all but the few individ- 
uals, and its chief advantage is to the race as a whole. 

Selection good for the species that can endure it. By this we 
mean that if a number of individuals suflicient to keep up the 
population are able to meet the demands of selection, then the 
species will rapidly progress ; and up to this point the more 
severe the selection the better for the race. This is an impor- 
tant distinction in all evolution that should never be forgotten, 
for it is only when undergoing severe selection that species 
change much in their characters from generation to generation. 

Next to sudden calamity the greatest misfortune that can 
happen to a species or a race is a long succession of easy times, 
when the whole population settles down to a dead level of inac- 
tivity. Then are the days of extinction imminent, for matters 
will not alwaxs run in an accustomed rut, and when the days of 
sudden and unaccustomed changes come, they are likely to find 
things unprepared. 

Selection fatal to a race that cannot endure its hardships. 
It matters little to the race what happens to individuals, so long 
as a sufficient number prosper. It is vital, however, that a 



EFFECT OF NA1TTRAL SELECTION 85 

sufficient number do prosper, for it is upon them that the 
succession depends. 

If the conditions are so hard or the individuals so far below the 
standard that none, or at most but very few, can meet the demands 
of the struggle, then, of course, are the days of the species num- 
bered, and thousands of races like millions of individuals have 
met these conditions and gone down under them since the world 
was young. We speak of these as extinct species, but who knows 
what buried possibilities were lost in the dim past when the ele- 
mental energies were at work laying the foundations of things .'' 

Interest of the individual and the race not identical. In this 
way we fully realize that the interests of the race are not identi- 
cal, indeed are often at variance, with those of the individual. 

This is true, however, only for the existing generation, be- 
cause the interests of future individuals are involved with those 
of the race, and whatever benefits the race as a whole is good 
for future individuals, just as we all, in these days, are happier 
for the bloodshed and self-sacrifice of the thousands of our fore- 
fathers who gave themselves up in labor and in war to make 
the world a better place in which to live. 

In the struggles of a race with or against its environment 
one or the other must yield. With intelligent and powerful 
beings like men it is often possible to modify the conditions of 
life and not submit to the necessity of its hardships. When, 
however, this is impossible, either by reason of the rigidity of 
conditions or the helplessness of the race, then nothing remains 
but that the species as a whole should bow to the inevitable 
and bend its characters to conditions it cannot break. Here the 
sacrifice of individuals of one generation is fully compensated 
in the next, so that in the long run the interests of the race and 
the individuals that compose it are identical. 

A close fit between a species and its environment is inevitable. 
This rapid shaping of a species in harmony with its surround- 
ings is bound to bring about a close "fit" between a species and 
the peculiar circumstances by which it is surrounded. 



86 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

It could not well be otherwise, certainly in so far as vital 
particulars are concerned. II llu' bill is a little too short or too 
soft to reach the worm as he burrows deeper, then it will be 
promptly lengthened, not in short-billed individuals but in the 
descendants of those with lont;er bills. If the markin;;" of the 
butterfly is similar to a leaf or a lichen, then those individuals 
in which the resemblance is closest will profit most and the 
similaritN" will grow closer. If the relations between two species 
happen to be mutually beneficial, then those relations will be still 
better perfected in future generations b\- the selective process, 
till possibly they ma)- become essential to the existence of one 
or the other, if not of both. 

For example, certain moths have the habit of laying their 
eggs only upon particular plants, then of gathering a pellet of 
pollen off the flowers and storing it near the egg as food for 
the young larva, thereby pollinating the flower.^ Some of these 
"fits" seem unaccountable except on the basis of intelligence or 
design, but when we remember not onl\- the verv low intelligence 
of the moth, but also the fact that she never sees the outcome of 
it all, since she will be dead before her own eggs hatch, the role 
of intelligence is eliminated. When also we remember that 
some of the best fits are peculiarly fatal to one of its members, we 
rule out design, for nature is not partial as between its creatures.^ 

Apparent exceptions due to absence of severe selection. The 
fit is often notably bad, as when the moth flies into the candle, 
impelled by an instinct it cannot control.''^ but to which it 

1 See the case of the yucca moth described in " rrinciples of lirecding," 
p. 105. which see also for a general discussion of Instinct, pp. 3S6-404. 

"^ Ofttimes the insect's egg is laid inside the body of another creature, which 
is necessarily fatal, just as the fact that the best temperature and conditions 
for tuberculosis happen to fit alarmingly close with that of cattle (102°) and 
the extremely insanitary way in which many of them are kept in our hot and 
close basement barns. Surely this is not design, nor is it especially beneficent, 
for the tubercle bacillus certainly cannot have interests worth consideration, 
even if we disregard those of our cattle and our own as well. The fit is, never- 
theless, close and complete. 

^ See '■ IVinciples of Hreeding," pp. 394-397, for a discussion of the causes' 
of instinctive acts. 



EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION S'J 

responds at the cost of its life. Manifestly this is because of 
unusual conditions, for if there were very many naked lights in 
the world, relatively speaking, these moths would become ex- 
tinct unless there were a sufficient number of individuals with- 
out this fatal instinct to keep the numbers good, in which case 
a new and real fit would be developed. The cause of the 
present misfit is of course due to the fact that the fatal selection 
is too rare to greatly affect the species ; that is, the selection is 
not severe upon the species because, relatively speaking, it is 
not frequently exercised. 

The foot of the elephant has been mentioned as a disadvan- 
tage. The immense branching horns of the stag are certainly 
far from being advantageous to him, or even a good fit with 
his brushy environment, with which they frequently become 
entangled. Many a stag has gone down to his death because 
his horns became entangled in the thicket or locked with those 
of an adversary, and many pairs of antlers are found lying be- 
tween two skeletons, mute witnesses of the final death struggle 
in which the cause of the tragedy was the unfortunate horns 
that are commonly supposed to be protective. 

The present point is, that while this is far from a good fit, 
yet the fatal consequences do not follow with sufficient frequency 
to affect the species. But few males are needed to perpetuate 
the species, and the small number that lose their lives by means 
of their unfortunate horns can well be spared, for they will not 
be needed in the propagation of the new generation. As will be 
readily seen, defects in females are much more dangerous to 
species than are defects in males. 

Adaptation not necessarily perfect. The fit between various 
species and their environment, and the adaptation of their parts 
to the surrounding conditions, are not, therefore, necessarily 
perfect. It must be good enough to insure abundance of offspring 
for the next generation, and that is enough. Any race, therefore, 
can endure any handicap up to this point and prosper, and that 
is why natural selection carries improvement up to a certain point 



88 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

and stops. Nature does not aim at perfection, but every species 
is just as good as competition makes it, and no better. 

Writers when discussing this topic often overstate the facts. 
They are impressed by the niceties of adjustment so frequently 
seen in nature, and rush to the assumption that everything is 
perfectly adjusted and perfectly adaptive. It is better to under- 
stand that upon the whole characters are and must be highly 
but not perfectly adaptive ; that such adaptations are achieved 
at great distress to individuals and temporary danger to the 
species, and that they xvill never be more mimerous or closer 
than circumstances compel ; so that each species generally sur- 
vives ivith one or more handicaps, in which the fatalities are 
not sufficient to fojrc a fit upon the one hand or bring about 
extinction upon the other. 

Looked at in this way, the animals and plants of the forest as 
we see them, even in a state of nature, represent a choice but 
not a perfect lot, born, upon the whole, as they are, from a 
highly selected though not perfect ancestry ; that is, from the 
standpoint of nature these species were already highly bred 
when first domesticated by our forefathers. 

Our standards of selection differ from those of nature. In 
nature selection is based only on the struggle for existence. 
Nothing avails that does not bear upon the supreme issue of 
mere ability to live and reproduce fast enough to keep ahead of 
the death rate and thus maintain the balance of life in favor 
of the species. Natural selection is thus based on anything and 
everything that affects the mere question of life, death, and 
reproduction, and nothing else. It secures, of course, great vigor, 
comparatively long life,^ and at least a reasonable degree of 
fecundity together with the extreme development of whatever 
physical part or trait of character is directly concerned with the 
preservation and sustenance of life, and there it will stop. 

^ See Fig. 12. This is the same burro shown on page 7 in his working out- 
fit, when engaged in building the I'ikes Peak Railroad many years ago. His 
labors are done and he is now kept for photographic purposes. lie illustrates 
the longevity of rare individuals. 



EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION 



89 



Our selection begins, therefore, where natural selection leaves 
off, and it aims to secure also the development of some part or 
faculty that is of special value to us. For example, nature would 
develop a sharp horn in cattle and perfect the instinct to hide 
the young at birth, ^ but it would not develop the milking process 
to a very high degree for the reason that almost any cow in a 
state of nature could give enough milk to satisfy her calf. 




Fig. 12. Old Dick, now fifty-six years old 

Natural selection develops the speed and endurance of horses, 
as also, very likely, their vision and the quality of the hoof, but 
it does not develop the size we need for draft purposes, nor 
bring out the action nor the teachableness we desire for driv- 
ing purposes. 

The agility of sheep and goats is rather overdeveloped in 
nature for our purposes, but the fineness of the fleece and length 

1 Every farmer boy knows that the cow will hide her calf, and if conditions 
are at all favorable, it will take a good hunt to find it. 



90 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

of staple needs further attention. It was good enough for them, 
but nothing attainable is too good for us, in our opinion 
at least. 

In nature, if a plant seeds freely it will probably survive, and 
it makes little difference whether all or only a few individuals 
seed abundantly, but when we raise a crop we desire an abun- 
dant yield, and to secure this every individual plant should do 
its share. In domestication we want no laggards. 

Fruits and flowers may easily be sufficiently sweet and juicy, 
or showy and fragrant to be attractive to animals and insects, 
and thus secure the essential points of fertilization and distri- 
bution ; but with our refined sensibilities and educated t^istes we 
require and exact the finest flowers, the most delicate colors, and 
the most delicious fragrance that can be produced by the most 
discriminating selection. 

Not all the results of natural selection are useful to us. Some 
of the achievements of natural selection do not commend them- 
selves to our favor, as, for example, when the seeds of the stipa 
grass, with their sharp and barbed points adapted to boring and 
their twisted, crooked tails adapted to pushing and twisting, get 
upon our animals and enter the flesh. Then our admiration for 
the fine adaptations of nature is turned to alarm, as it is when 
the botfly torments our horse to hatch her young in his stomach, 
or the yellow-fever germ enters our blood by way of the bite ^ 
of the mosquito. 

Even some of our most useful species bring with them certain 
traits highly developed by natural selection, which are worse than 
useless for our purposes. For example, the extreme timidity 
of the horse, akin to that of the deer and the antelope, is useful 
to him in nature, no doubt, but for our purpose we should like 
to exchange it for the quiet confidence of the dog, which is born 
of boldness rather than of timidity and is toned down by associa- 
tion with his master. As it is, we must develop the confidence 
of the horse against his natural instincts. 

1 It is needless to remark that the mosquito does not truly bite. 



EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION 91 

We should be glad to be rid of the sharp horn, the surly 
disposition, and the fighting nature of bulls. We domesticated 
the race for its milk and its meat, not for its fighting qualities, 
but were forced to take these undesirable traits into the bar- 
gain, like a job lot at auction, and they have made us no little 
trouble ever since. We are beginning now to cut off these 
emblems of savagery, these weapons ^ of the woods, and still 
more sensibly to breed them off. The latter must, from the 
nature of the case, be a somewhat gradual process, particularly 
as our best breeds are so well fixed in other characteristics. 

Our standards often require much readjustment of domesti- 
cated species. Having domesticated a species because of some 
valuable natural quality, we often institute conditions of life quite 
different from those under which the quality was developed and 
under which the species has lived, all of which make necessary 
the most radical readjustments on the part of the species in order 
to meet the new conditions and still maintain its natural faculties, 
not impaired, but improved if possible. 

The pig affords the most conspicuous example of this change 
in conditions of life without change in our demands. We 
domesticated him solely for his flesh, which is exceedingly rich 
in fat.^ In his wild state the pig lives an active woods life, sub- 
sisting on roots, nuts, and a little flesh when he can get it. He 
is, for example, an expert snake hunter, setting his feet on the 

1 The cruelty of cutting off horns has been greatly overrated. The horn is 
comparable not to the bone but to the finger nail, being an outgrowth of the 
skin merely. The practice of dehorning is mild as compared with the shock- 
ing and useless barbarity of docking horses. Every horn that is cut off pre- 
vents vastly more injury and misery than it causes. 

2 The ground hog or woodchuck during the summer lays on a great store 
of fat and during winter hibernates, that is, sleeps almost continuously, main- 
taining a low degree of vital activities at slight expense of food materials, which 
is met from the store of fat under his skin, just as the turnip or the beet sends 
up its seed stalk and ripens its crop from the food material stored in the root. 
The pig, like the bear, is a kind of half hibernator, that is, with a good store 
of fat he can endure long periods of scarcity and even go a considerable time 
without food, as has been learned when pigs have been accidentally confined 
under straw stacks for a number of weeks. 



92 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND I'LAXTS 



animal with great sl^ill aiul at once ri|)pini;- up the both' with 
the teeth and tusks. 

In domestication we change all this. W'e shut him up in 
a close little pen in the open sun, away from water, and feed 
him niosth' on grain, or, in cases of extra care, on mush. ])erhaps 
cooked and steaming hot. Xow the pig cannot sweat. He has 
no glands for the purpose. In nature he lives in the shade and 
runs to the ri\er when oppressed by heat. He is not used to an 
exclusive diet of seeds, and has never accustomed himself to 
hot soup and steaming mush. He has not been selected on 
that basis, and what wonder that he makes the most of any water 
or even mud that he can reach, doing his best with snout and 
tusk to bury himself in the ground, and snapping greedily at 
alfalfa or clover hay pasture grass, or anything else that will help 
to restore the conditions to which he had been accustomed by long 
generations of selection ! We must either change our habits of 
keeping the pig, as the best farmers are doing, or he will be 
obliged to radically change his nature, which will take much time 
and be exceedingly expensive to us, for it costs dearl\- to make 
over a species in respect to fundamental characters. 

Again, we often add a requirement or two to the natural 
qualities which led to domestication, all of which will of course 
require no little readjustment of the nature of the species in 
order to meet new demands. For example, the chicken was 
doubtless domesticated for her eggs and the sheep for its wool, 
but we have made meat animals out of both. Beets were at first 
cultivated as a toothsome vegetable, but later developed for the 
sugar content, which vastly changed the nature of the plant, as 
it required substantial addition to the leaf surface.^ 

So examples might be multiplied indefinitely to show how 
we have added, and indeed are constantly adding, new require- 
ments to our domesticated species, requiring additional selection. 

1 Sugar is practically carbon and water, and this new demand fell heaviest 
on the leaves, which, as has been explained, are the agents for fixing and bring- 
ing into the plant the carbon from the carbon dioxide of the air. 



EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION 



93 



not only to develop still further their naturally valuable qualities, 
but to bring about more or less radical readjustments occasioned 
and made necessary by these new demands of ours. 

Natural selection always at work. We must not for a mo- 
.ment suppose that our domestication and the new standards of 
breeding entirely do away with natural selection. In respect to 
tooth and claw, of course selection stops the moment we make 
warfare impossible, but in such 
fundamental matters as constitu- 
tional vigor, fecundity, and the 
vital and reproductive faculties 
natural 'selection never surren- 
ders its hold upon a species. 

Ofttimes we forget this and 
are brought up standing by the 
consequences. Sometimes our 
standards of selection are unwit- 
tingly at opposites with these 
fundamental matters, and then 
the shock and the lesson are 
severe. For instance, many an 
amateur breeder will select the 
fattest and smoothest pigs for 
breeding purposes, not knowing 
that these are neither the most 
prolific nor the hardiest. His 
herd soon runs out. Natural selection has been at work day 
and night to undermine his herd at the point of infertility. 

Some very favorite strains of cattle or sheep are decidedly 
'" shy breeders," If so, it may as well be understood that they 
will go down under the relentless work of natural selection, 
unless indeed the defect can be speedily remedied by finding 
prolific strains among the favorites. 

Power of selection to modify type. Selection can do far 
more than develop a single type to conform to some single 




Fig. 13. The passenger pigeun, 

wild parent of all the domesticated 

sorts that have been developed by 

selection (see Figs. 14 and 15) 







!*sr- 





4^^^^^SU 






12 






l''ii;. i-i. 'I'vpcs of ])igO()iis developed from the rock or pa.sseiij;er pij;eoa 
shown in Fig. 13 

2, Barb; 3, Swallow; 4, Magpie; 5, Chinese owl; 6, English pouter; -, Dragon; 

S, Duchess; i), Fantail ; 10, Maltese hen ; 11, F'rillback; 

12, English carrier; 13, Morehead 

94 







Fig. 15. Additional types developed from the passenger pigeon, by selection 

and breeding 

14, White homers ; 15, Oriental frills ; 16, Fantails; 17, Turbits; 

18, Birmingham tumblers ; 19, English sterlings ; 

20, Russian trumpeters; 21, Jacobins 

95 



96 DOMESTICA TED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

balance of natural condition of climate, room, and food supply. 
If these fundamentals are provided for, selection is able to 
modify t\'pe in many directions at the same time, so that from 
a single original stock a multitude of diverse forms may be 
built up. 

There are no better instances of this than the pigeon, the 
many and diverse varieties of which have been bred within his- 
toric times from the single primitive form, the wild or passenger 
pigeon (see Fig. 13), Hardly second to this is the wonderful 
variety in the different breeds of the dog, well known to all 
obser\'ers. 

If this can be done with these species, what a future of possi- 
bilities is opened up for still further developing and improving 
our animals and plants of field, orchard, and garden ! 

Summary. The marvelous effects of natural selection and its power to 
modify type to fit the surroundings simply through the extermination of the 
inferior indiyiduals, suggests to man a means of still further adapting these 
species to his own needs. 

In nature the basis of selection is simply the power to live and repro- 
duce fast enough to keep up with the death rate. Man, on the other hand, 
is interested in something besides mere life and reproduction. 

For example, he keeps the cow for her milk, and he is interested in the 
amount she can give. In nature she needed only to give enough for the 
calf, and that only until he could wholly or partly shift for himself. In do- 
mestication, on the other hand, man considers the cow as a machine that 
should give all the milk possible and give it continuously. Manifestly, 
therefore, man must set up some additional standards of selection, and all 
the evidence is that he does this ; the domestic cow reacts, and increases her 
output. This does not mean that a poor cow can be made into a good one 
by any process known to man, but does mean that if the dairyman breeds 
only from his best cows, the calves will develop into a better lot. on the 
average, than they would have been if he had bred from good, bad, and 
indifferent. 

This is artificial selection, copied after nature's plan. It has been prac- 
ticed from the earliest times, and is the process that has produced about all 
the improvement that has been made up to near the present day. 

This plan of improvement by selection will be considered later in detail 
under the head of systematic improvement of animals and of plants. 



EFFECT OF NATURAL SELECTION 



97 



Meanwhile we leave it here to develop another and a newer method of 
improvement, based on a more careful study and a more minute knowledge 
of the real constitution of living beings. 

Exercise. Give the history of some breed of domestic animal, — cattle, 
horse, sheep, pig, dog, or chicken. 

References. 1. "Types and Breeds of Farm Animals." Plumb. 

2. " Dogcraft." Hachwalt. 

3. " Survival of the Unlike." Bailey. 



CIIAITI'.R \'I1 
UNIT CHARACTERS 

I'nit of study ■ Species composed of definite characters • livery individual 
possesses all the characters of the race • Characters developed and characters 
latent • Characters dominant and characters recessive • Correlation of charac- 
ters • Lost characters • New characters • Characters and unit characters 

Unit of study. In attemptinc^ to discover the ultimate prin- 
ciples involved in plant or animal improvement as we have 
learned to understand it, the special object of study is not the 
species as a whole nor even the individuals involved, but rather 
the particular characters that give the species \alue to man, and 
their relation to the general group of unit characters that com- 
pose the race. This study is undertaken with the pin-pose of 
developing a second method of improvement in addition to the 
one by simple selection already outlined. 

Species composed of definite characters. It requires a little 
careful thought to fully realize that all species are composed of 
very definite characters, — some more prominent than others, 
some especially prominent in certain individuals and secondary 
in others, and still others that might be included, for all we 
know or can see, but that yet are never found. 

For example, vertebras and ribs are characters common to 
many species, a hairy covering to vastly fewer, horns to fewer 
yet, and smooth, sharp horns to very few. The short, smooth, 
sharp horn, characteristic of the bison, and the large, fiat, 
corrugated one of the true buffalo are very different, the one 
from the other, but each is found in no other species. There 
is no evident reason why horses do not have horns like 
most cattle, but the fact is that this ciiaracter is absent in the 
genus Equiis. 

98 



UNIT CHARACTERS 99 

The limitation of unit characters is well brought out in respect 
to color. Butterflies have black, white, red, green (with both its 
constituents, yellow and blue), and almost all conceivable shades 
and markings. Birds have the same, but with few cases of the 
green. Cattle have black, white, red, and a kind of yellow 
and blue, but no green. These colors combine, too, both in 
spots and roans. Pigs have black, white, and red, in which 
the combination is fre(|uently spotted (piebald) but never roan. 
1 lorses have black, white, and a kind of red, mixed in both 
spots and roans, but no blue or green ; that is to say, color 
characters are limited. 

All this means that species are made up of certain definite 
characters, and these characters run through and among the 
individuals like colored threads in the warp and woof of cloth, 
throwing up here one pattern and there another, according to 
the relative intensity and frequency of the various units. 

What is true of colors and color patterns is true of other 
characters of the race, and the term " unit character " is a good 
one to designate these half-independent and half-dependent 
assortments of physical features that go to make up the various 
species in nature. It is upon these unit characters separately, 
and not upon their composite effect, that the attention should 
now be fixed. 

Every individual possesses all the characters of the race. 
After being convinced that no two individuals are alike, it is 
easy to assume that they differ in the particular unit characters 
they possess. This is a mistake. Every individual possesses all 
the characters of the race to which he belongs, whether they 
are evident or not, whether they are developed or undeveloped. 
Individual differences in most respects are quantitative rather 
than qualitative, that is, are due to relative development or non- 
development of characters that belong to the race rather than to 
actual difference in unit characters. 

Some races are so rich in unit characters that not all can 
develop in any single individual, as, for example, color in cattle. 



lOO DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Some of the units are present in a high degree, and these are 
strongly developed, giving the visible appearanee of the indi- 
\ idual ; others are present in low degree, remaining undeveloped, 
and out of evidence, leaving us to assume their absence. 

The proof that every individual really possesses all the normal 
characters of the race is the fact that he will transmit them to 
his voung, and that is why the offspring of two bay horses may 
be something else than ba\-. When such an offspring is, say, 
black, we assume that one and possibly both of the parents 
possessed unit characters of black as well as bay ; that is to say, 
that some o( the ancestors were black. Not onh' that, but if any 
of the ancestors were black, we assume that black unit characters 
are present, that they will be certainly transmitted, and will one 
dav cn>p out. 

The sire will transmit milking qualit\- as well as the cow, 
though it is a character that develops only in the female. The 
truth is that he. as well as the female, possesses the character, 
but it is not functional in his case. It loses nothing by this fact, 
however, in transmission. People are often puzzled to account 
for traits of character that outcrop in children, but were notice- 
able in neither parent. The truth is that all ancestry is more 
or less mixed, and e\en- parent can be counted upon to trans- 
mit many more imit characters than are present in his visible 
make-up. This is reversion, the so-called mystery of transmis- 
sion or " failure of heredit\," as it is often erroneously denomi- 
nated. It is no failure at all, for real unit characters are all 
transmitted ; whether they ever develop and become evident 
depends upon a variety of circumstances, chief of which are 
their relative intensity and the conditions of life to which the 
individual happens to be subjected during development. 

Characters developed and characters latent. As has just been 
implied, the visible personality of the individual depends upon 
those particular characters that happen to have developed, and 
not at all upon that other and extensive possessicm of unde- 
veloped or, as they are called, "" latent " characters. The term 



UNIT CHARACTERS lOl 

is not a good one. They are latent only in the sense that they 
are not evident except as they outcrop in succeeding generations, 
when, with other blood lines, the new combinations become 
sufficiently strong or otherwise favorable to bring them out. 
They are not latent in the sense that their presence cannot be 
suspected. If we examine carefully all the unit characters in 
any race, we shall know positively what characters will be pos- 
sessed by the descendants, but as to which will develop and give 
visible evidence of their presence in any particular individual 
we cannot predict. We shall see later, however, that if both 
sire and dam are black, knowing nothing about other ancestry, 
the offspring will stand even chances of being black also. If all 
the grandparents, however, were red, the offspring, even of 
black parents, would stand one chance in four of being red ; or, 
what is the same thing, one fourth of all such offspring would 
be red and one half black, with the other one fourth unknown. 

Characters dominant and characters recessive. Some charac- 
ters are dominant, that is, strong and easily seen, while others 
are difficult of detection or easily covered up and obscured by 
stronger ones. Thus, in flowers, pink is easily lost in red ; light 
blue, in purple ; or yellow, in green. Small size is obscured by 
large size, and, in general, certain characters are much more 
readily seen than others. Those that are most evident are called 
the dominant, as distinct from the recessive, which are the less 
evident. Quite aside from mere visibility, too, certain characters 
seem more likely to appear in crossed forms than do their cor- 
responding but equally noticeable characters (see the discus- 
sion under Mendel's law and the illustrations of guinea pigs 
in Chapter XI). 

Correlation of characters. ^ The relations between the many 
unit characters that make up any race are in many respects 
striking. Certain characters move together in the relation of 
cause and effect. Such characters are said to be highly corre- 
lated. Certain others seem naturally opposed, and here the 

^ " Principles of Breeding," chap. xiii. 



lo: 



nOMESTR'AlKn ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



correlation is said to bo ncualixc. In general, while characters 
are more or less indifferent to each other, there is. for the most 
part, a low but real correlation. Methods of calculating this cor- 
relation are well known and are extensively used in statistical 
studies, but are rather too complicated for introduction here (see 
reference to " Principles of Breeding" just given). 




Fio. 1 6. Albino deer. Specimen owned by State Museum. Augusta. Maine 



Lost characters. In the vicissitudes of time and selection 
characters are sometimes lost. Thus the whale, which is a true 
mammal, like the cow, and which once lived upon the land, has 
lost its hind legs except for a few pelvic bones. Birds have lost 
one ovary. The whole snake family has lost one lung, and all 
but the python have lost all traces of their legs. 

Some colors are the result of pigment formation. This quality 
is often lost, resulting sometimes in an albino individual, as in 



UNIT CHARACTERS 103 

V'lg. 16,^ or of an entire strain, as in cattle and pigs, and 
sometimes in a modified color, due to the absence of the 
definite pigment. 

New characters, k is much easier to understand the extinc- 
tion of characters and species than it is to account for the 
appearance of new ones ; indeed, there is some reason to be- 
lieve tliat both the fauna and the flora of the world are getting 
simpler, that is, so far as numbers of species are concerned, by 
which is meant that, in all likelihood, species are becoming ex- 
tinct faster than new ones are appearing. 

However, new characters are appearing and, as we shall see 
later, new strains and races, equivalent for present purposes to 
new species, are constantly developing. These arise sometimes 
through the loss of a character, but often by some new combi- 
nations of old characters, resulting essentially in new races, 
(jood examples of this are found in the large number of new 
strains of garden flowers, fruits, and vegetables, each with some 
distinguishing trait that is especially valuable. 

Characters and unit characters. A distinction must be here 
observed for the sake of accuracy. The term "character" is 
used in a very general sense to cover any quality or faculty of 
animal or plant to which we especially desire to allude. 

For example, we speak of the quality of milk production, 
which, as a valuable commercial consideration in cattle, may be 
roughly spoken of as a character. Upon reflection, however, it 
will be seen that it is not a wiit character, for the faculty arises 
not from a single physiological function but from several ; that 
is to say, there are a variety of facts that would influence milk 
production, namely, the size of the udder, the glandular activity 
of the organ, the capacity to eat and digest large amounts of 
food, and perhaps a number of others unknown to us. 



1 Such a deer would of course have Httle chance of being spared either 
by the hunter or by natural enemies; hence no strain of albino deer can de- 
velop. The same is true as to albinism in bears, except in arctic regions where 
conditions are reversed. 



I04 DOMHSTRATKl) ANIMALS AND IM.AN TS 

Now it is evident that we niii;ht have eows with g(H)d udders 
and indifferent digestive powers. In other words, milk produe- 
tion is eonditioned upon a number of minor factors, each able to 
behave somewhat independent of the others physiologically ; that 
is. to behave as separate unit chaiacters. 

The term "unit character" is therefore used to indicate such 
fundamentally physiological elements as tend to behave some- 
what independently of each other and to act as units in trans- 
mission from parent to offsjDring. 

How these units are transmitted from parent to offspring, and 
how they behave in transmission, is the subject of succeeding 
chapters. 

Summary. Each " character " has a real physiological basis, and such 
an ultimate unit of variability is called a " unit character." In common par- 
lance we often use the term "character" for what must be the resultant of a 
large number of these units, as when we speak of milk production. 

These unit characters are sometimes difficult to differentiate and identify, 
but often not ; as, for example, a single color commonly behaves as a unit, 
while temperament and the more comple.\ functions are evidently the re- 
sultants of many uiiit.s. 

Exercises. 1. Make a list of the color characters of horses, cattle, sheep, 
pigs, and other domestic animals. 

2. Make a list of the characters common to the horse and the cow ; the 
pig and the sheep ; the hen and the goose ; the hen and the pig.' 

3. Make a list of characters possessed by the one hut not by the other of 
the above couplets. - 

1 In this remember that character mcan.s any physical part like vertebra or 
rib, hoof or horn, color or odor, as well as any mental trait like timidity or 
fierceness, docility or nervousness. 

2 Thus while the hen and the pig both have round eyes, the hen has feathers 
instead of bristles. What is the seeming hair on the hen ? 



CHAPTER VIII 

VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER i 

Critical study of a single character- Types- Plotting the frequency curve- 
The mean - The typical individual - Variability or deviation from type • 
Average deviation - Standard deviation ■ Coefficient of variability ■ Suggestions 
as to taking measurements • Suggestions as to grouping - Suggestions as to 
numbers - Suggestions as to taking samples - Advantages of statistical studies 

Critical study of a single character. W'e have seen that the 
individual and the race are made up of an intimate association 
of semi-independent units called characters. Now, owing to the 
differences in heredity and to the vicissitudes of development 
these characters are themselves, in many cases at least, highly 
inconstant, and it remains to study next the variability of a 
single unit character considered by itself alone. 

Suppose we are to study corn characters one by one, as, for 
example, the length of ears. We find at once that different ears 
differ greatly in this respect. How, then, shall we describe this 
character so long as it is not uniform in different ears.? We can 
do it only by first ascertaining the type, and next learning what 
is the variability or deviation from this type with respect to 
length, for, of course, variabilities differ in different characters 
even in the same species. It is the business of the present 
chapter to show how this may be done. 

Vox this purpose take at random, that is, just as they come 
from the field, a lot of ears, say, 300 or thereabouts. Next de- 
cide upon a scale or " scheme " of measurements for grouping.^ 

' ?"or a more extended study see " Trinciples of Breeding," chap. xii. 

2 It needs some practice in order to decide upon the most desirable scheme 
for any particular study. It is found that for length half-inch differences give 
as good results as do finer measurements, but that differences of one inch 
fail to give a smooth distribution. With half-inch differences the distribution 
is " smooth," that is, the numbers increase and decrease gradually. 

105 



io6 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



Distribution as to 
Length 



Then measure each ear and record it opposite the fii^ure in 
the scheme that comes inirnst to the correct measure of the 
ear. When all the ears ha\e been measured and the lengths 
recorded, you will have results similar to these of the follow- 
ing table, which is an actual case taken from a field of Reed's 
Yellow Dent, crop of 1906. 

By this we see that in all 286 ears were 
measured ; that our scale was longer 
than it needed to be. for no ear was 
found as short as 4 inches or as long as 
1 2 inches ; that one ear was 5 inches 
long, four were 5^- inches long, etc. ; and 
that the number gradually rises to 59 and 
then as gradually declines, so that ex- 
tremes of length are represented by rcla- 
ti\ely few ears. 

Types. We arc ready now to arrive at 
a rational conception of type. The most 
common length of ear is not 5 inches nor 
is it 10 inches, but it is 8 ^ inches, because 
59 out of 286 ears were nearer that length 
than any other. This is therefore the most 
usual, or, as we say, the typical length. 
This is not saying that it is the most de- 
sirable length, but that it is the length 
most commonly found. ^ Such a value is 
called the mode, and we say that 8.5 inches is the mode of 
this corn as to length. 

Plotting the frequency curve. Such a lot of measurements 
is technically called a " frequency distribution " or, more brieHy, 
a "distribution." It is alwavs indicated by the letter y", as is 
the scheme of values bv the letter / '. 



r 


/ 


4.0 




4-5 




5-0 


1 


5-5 
6.0 


4 
6 


6.5 


7 


7.0 


>9 


7-S 
8.0 


3' 
37 


8-5 
9.0 


59 
46 


9-5 


39 


1 0.0 


-3 


10.5 


1 1 


II.O 


2 


11.5 


I 


12.0 


286 



1 That is, a blindfolded man drawing ears at random would draw this length 
oftener than any other ; or if one's life depended upon a single draw, he would 
stand more chances by drawing this than any other length. 



VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER 



107 



Frequency distributions are always characterized by a gradual 
rise to the mode and then by a corresponding fall. This " slojje " 
of the frequency is best brought out to the eye by the system of 
plotting, in which the distribution is put into the form of a 
curve, called everywhere the frequency curve (see Fig. 17). 

To plot this curve lay off the horizontal line X'X, and erect 
O ]^as a perpendicular. Next lay off distances on A'' A' both ways 
from O, corresponding to the scheme of values, and erect perpen- 
diculars from each. Then lay off on OV a distance correspond- 
ing to the modal value, — in this case 59, — and on each of the 















r 










GO- 










50 — 




/ 


'"^v 




40 — 




.-'{ 




~~~-^ 






30 — 






--'' 








'^, 




20 — 
10 — 


-'1 r" 


-1" 


-^ 

















—X 

5.0 5.5 6.0 G.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 O 9.0 9.5 10.0 10.5 11.0 11.5 

Fig. 17. The frequency curve 

perpendiculars a distance corresponding to the number it repre- 
sents. Last of all, connect these points with a curved line, and 
this line will be the so-called curve of frequency, which is a true 
picture of the variability of the character in question, 

A glance at Fig. 17 will show that this distribution is not 
quite as smooth as would be, desired, — -a fault that would be cor- 
rected with a larger number of ears, in which case the slopes of 
the curve would be more regular and its character more uniform. 

The mean. It is clear that two populations ^ might have the 
same mode but with very different distributions. There is there- 
fore another conception of type quite aside from the highest 

^ " Population " is the technical term for the group of individuals studied, 
whether corn or cattle or people. In the present instance we are trying to 
study the variability as to length of ear in Reed's Yellow Dent, which is the 
population, by means of a supposedly random sample of 286 ears — rather too 
few for smooth results, but upon the whole fairly satisfactory. 



io8 



nOMF-SriCATKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



DlSTRllUTlON AS TO LkNCTH 
KINIMNC; THK MKAN ^ 



frequonc\-. and that is the avcrai^c of all the measurements, 
technieallv ealled the mean.^ The formula for the mean is 
S/7'-^ // = M!^ In words, this means to multipl)' eaeh group of 
the frequeney distribution (/) by its eorresponding \alue ( / '), add 

the results, and divide by the total 
number, all of whieh amounts to 
the adding together of all the 
lengths as originally taken and 
dividing h\ the total number. It 
is the usual operation of find- 
ing the a\erage, knt)\vn to Qxcxy 
sehoolboy, but it is best done 
methodieallv, and the method is 
well illustrated by the ease in 
point, as shown in the aeeom- 
pan\ing table. 

H\- this we see that the aver- 
age ear in this particular case 
was 8.514 inches long, differing 
somewhat from the mode or most 
frequent length. Either the mode 
or the mean can be taken as the 
tvpe, according" to the needs of 
the case, but the measure most commonlv accepted as best rep- 
resenting the t\-pe is the mean en" average of all. 

The typical individuaL Having determined the tvpe as to a 
single character, it can be determined in the same way for any 

^ The mean is to be distinguished from the median, which is the middle- 
most ; that is to say. if these zSd ears should be spread out in a row, beginning 
with the shortest, the median would be the ear at the middle point, with as 
many above it as below it in length. As our number is even, there would be 
no true median, for the 143d ear would have 142 below it and 143 above it. 
If there were one ear less, the median would be the 143d ear. and its length 
would be the median length. 

- The Greek 2 (capital sigma) is the usual sign of addition or summation. 

* Here /'means value, as before, /" means frequency, and//'means / x /', 
or the values multiplied by their respective frequencies. 



r 


/ 


/'^ 


5.0 


I 


5-0 


5-5 


4 


22.0 


6.0 


6 


36.0 


6.5 


7 


45-5 


7.0 


19 


1330 


7-5 


31 


23-5 


8.0 


Z7 


296.0 


8.5 


59 


5o'-5 


9.0 


46 


414.0 


9-5 


39 


370.5 


1 0.0 


-3 


230.0 


10.5 


II 


115-5 


II.O 


2 


22.0 


II. 5 


I 


11.5 




S286 


2 2435.0 



24350 



2S6 = S.5I4 
mean 



J/, the 



VARIABlLirV OF A SINGLE CHARACTER 



109 



DiSTKIHUTION AS TO 

Weight of Ears 
IN Ounces 



number of other characters that can be measured, weighed, 
counted, or in any other way accurately determined. Thus the 
following is an actual distribution as to weight of ears, in which 
the character is measured in terms of ounces instead of inches. 
11 ere the j)roblem deals with a different unit of value, so that 
/ ' now stands for ounces, while / stands for frequency, as be- 
fore. The mode in this distribution is 9 
ounces and the mean 8.807 ounces, the 
derivation of which is left for the student 
or reader by the methods already outlined. 

If now we should pick an ear that is 
8.514 inches long and that weighs 8.807 
ounces, it would be typical both as to 
length and zveigJit. So in the same way 
other characters could be determined, 
such as circumference, number of rows, 
and in some cases even color, and any ear 
that was "on the type" as to cacJi char- 
acter could be fairly called a typical ear. 

A typical individual is, therefore, one 
that is typical, or average, as to all the 
characters that are considered important. 
Practical experience will show that there 
are very few typical individuals in any 
species, provided very many characters 
are considered. 

Variability or deviation from type. But the average gives us 
only partial information concerning the character we are studying. 
It gives us no indication of the spread or range of the distribution, 
as to how many of the population have deviated from the type, or 
how extensive was the deviation ; that is, the average gives us no 
measure of variability, and it is such a measure that we now seek. 

Average deviation. Referring to the original distribution of 
length of ears, let us consider how much each group of ears 
deviates from the mean or average length, which is 8.514—. 



V 


/ 


2 


3 


3 


8 


4 


II 


5 


16 


6 


24 


7 


28 


8 


r- 


9 


39 


10 


36 


II 


35 


12 


22 


13 


'4 


14 


7 


15 


4 


16 


I 




S280 



Mean = 8.807 ounces. 



no IHniKSrK'A'rKD ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



\'ariaiui iiv AS TO Li:\(;tii of 
Eak — A\ EKACiii Deviation 



To avoid large decimals we discard the last figure and take the 
mean at S.31. I'^rom this mean the shmtest ear. which was 5 
inches long, deviated 3.51 inches, the next group of four each 

deviated 3.01 inches, or a 
total deviation of 4 x 3.01 = 
1J.04. luich of the next 
group of six deviated 2.51, 
equaling 15.06 in all, and so 
on for all the groups. It is 
manifest that if we continue 
down the distribution in this 
wa\-. calculating the deviation 
for each group, and then add 
all together, we shall have the 
total amount bv which <?// the 
ears de\"iated from the length 
of their average, and it is 
ccjualK' evident that if this 
total be divided by the num- 
ber of ears, we shall ha\e the 
average deviation of these 
ears. Such an average is a 
fair measure of variability with 
respect to the character length in this particular variety. The 

forniula would read as follows : -^ — - = a\crage dexiation.'-^ 

The process is carried out systematieall}'^ in the table above. 

• AH deviations I'lIo'c the mean are denoted by the minus siL:;n. In calculat- ~ 
ing deviation bv this method these signs are disregarded. In the metiiod to be 
next described these deviations are si/U(in\f so that the minus signs disappear 
naturally. 

''In words this formula means : subtract the mean from each of the values 
involved, multiply these differences by their respective frequencies (disre- 
garding the minus signs), add these products, and divide by the total number 
in the frequency distribution. 

^ In all work of this kind systematic arrangement is desirable, not only on 
the score of neatness but of accuracy as well. 



r 


/ 


/ •-.!/" 


/(/--.U) 


5.0 


I 


-3-5' 


3-51 


5-5 


4 


- 301 


12.04 


6.0 


6 


- --5' 


1 5.00 


6.5 


7 


— 2.01 


14.07 


7.0 


'9 


- i-5> 


28.60 


7-5 


3' 


— I.OI 


3 '-3' 


8.0 


37 


-0.51 


18.87 


8.5 


59 


— 0.0 1 


00.59 


9.0 


4b 


0.49 


22.54 


9-5 


39 


0.99 


38.61 


10.0 


-3 


1.49 


34-27 


10.5 


II 


1.99 


21.89 


I I.O 


2 


2.49 


4.98 


n-5 


I 
S286 


-•99 


2.99 
S 249.42 



Mean = 8.514 

149.42 -^ 286 = 0.872 -f , average 

deviation 



VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER in 

This gives 0.872 + as the average amount by which ears of 
this kind of corn deviate from their own average length. It is, 
therefore, a good measure of variabiHty, and, taken together 
with the average, it gives us a good measure of this particular 
character, because it tells us not only what is the average length, 
but also what is the general or average tendency to deviate or 
depart from that length. In other words, we now have a good 
measure both of type and variability for this single character 
and for this particular population. 

Standard deviation. The method of calculating variability 
just described has the merit of brevity and simplicity, but it so 
happens that mathematicians prefer a slightly different method. 
This difference consists only in squaring the several deviations 
before multiplying by their respective values, thus necessitating 
the extraction of the square root after division by the total 

number ; thus cr = -v P^ ' ^ his gives a slightly dif- 

ferent value for variability, which, when derived by this method, 
is called "standard deviation" and is denoted by the small 
Greek letter a (sigma). The method of systematically calcu- 
lating standard deviation is shown in the table on page 112. 
The disadvantage of standard deviation as compared with aver- 
age deviation is in the additional labor involved in its calculation, 
but it possesses many mathematical advantages in the solution 
of complicated problems. It is, therefore, the expression uni- 
versally preferred by mathematicians. As the two results differ, 
the student must choose between them. The average devia- 
tion is so seldom used that it is given only as a means of ex- 
plaining standard deviation on the common-sense ^ basis, and not 
because it will be used by the student. It is better in every way 
to follow custom in this matter and use the standard deviation. 



^ Mathematicians have a habit of appealing wherever possible to the in- 
stincts of " common sense " to evidence the reason for many things which, if 
absolutely demonstrated, would often require complicated formulae and much 
abstract reasoning. 



1 1 J 



noMKs iiTA ri:n \mm\is am> im.anis 



Vakiabiuty as to Len(;th ok Kak — SrAxnARn Deviation 



r 


/ 


t'-M 


(.y-M)* 


/(K-^)t 


^.0 


I 


-3-5« 


12.31 +1 


12.31 


^•^ 


4 


- 3.01 


9.06 + 


3('-4 


O.O 





- ^-51 


6.30 + 


37.S0 


0.5 


/ 


— 2.0 1 


4.04 + 


28.2S 


7.0 


10 


- 1.51 


J.-vS + 


43- >- 


7-5 


31 


— l.Ol 


\.02 4- 


3^.(.^ 


S.o 


37 


-0.51 


o.JO 4- 


9.62 


So 


5^^ 


— O.OI 


0.00 




0.0 


A^' 


0.40 


0.24 + 


1 1.04 


0.5 


y 


0.99 


0.98 + 


3S.22 


1 0.0 


-3 


1.49 


2.22 + 


51.06 


10.5 


1 1 


1. 91) 


3-96 + 


4356 


II.O 


2 


::.40 


6.20 


12.40 


11.5 


1 
::S6 


.:.Q0 


S.04 


304-41 



Mean = 8.5 14. 364.41 -^ 286= 1.2742. 

Vi-2742 = 1.13 — = standard deviation (<r). 

This standard deviation is considered, therefore, as the uni- 
versal measure of variabihtv, and the student will do well to 
work these values with original measurements until they come 
to have a real meaning". After this has been done for a time 
standard deviation will express as much about variability as does 
the radius about a circle. 

Coefficient of variability. Rut one further step is necessary 
in the mathematical studv of variability. The mean length of 
ear in this case was S.514 inches, and its variability, that is. its 
standard deviation, was 1.13 inches ; the mean weight of ear 
was 8.807 ounces, and the standard deviation was J. 8 54 ounces. 

How now can we compare \ariabilit\- in inches with \aria- 
bilitv in ounces.'' In other words, how can we tell whether 
this corn is more \ariable with respect to length than it is with 
respect to weight, or vice versa .•• We cannot tell by direct 

1 The plus sign denotes that decimals are dropped. 



Vy\l<l.\l',ILn \' or A SI.\(;LK ClfARACI KK 113 

comparison of ihc two standard deviations, because variability 
in one case is expressed in terms of inches and in the other in 
terms of ounces. 

If, however, each of the standard deviations be divided by its 
mean as a base, then the quotients can be directly compared. 
Thus I.I 3 -^ 8.5 14 = 0,1327, or, as it is more commonly written, 
J 3.27, meaning thereby 13.27 per cent; and 2.854 -=- 8.807 = 
32.41, showing that the corn is much more variable with respect 
to weif^ht than it is with respect to length, .Such a quotient — 
standard deviation divided by its mean — is known as the coeffi- 
cient of variability, and, being entirely an abstract number, it 
serves as a basis on which the variabilities of any two distribu- 
tions may be directly compared, whether dealing in terms of 
inches or ounces, feet or pounds or numbers, and whether the 
individuals involved are ears of corn, pounds of milk, bu-shels of 
grain, or any other races or characters where differences can be 
weighed, counted, or otherwise measured. The footnote^ gives 
a few coefficients of variability for human measurements, 

Hy the methods here outlined, any character or characters 
may be accurately studied as to both type and variability, pro- 
vided the character can be accurately measured in some way, and 
provided also that sufficient numbers can be found to make the 
distribution fairly smooth. 

It remains to offer suggestions as to certain details that are 
encountered in studies of this sort, and on which the student 
needs further information. 

Suggestions as to taking measurements. In the .scale just 
used, the measurements of corn were taken one half inch apart 
and the weights in ounces. Why ? Why were not the lengths 



1 Nose length . . 
Nose breadth . . 
Nose height . . 
Forehead height . 
Under-jaw length 
Mouth breadth 
Head length . . 



9.49 Head breadth 2.78 

7.57 Upper-arm length 6.50 

15.20 Forearm length 3.85 

10.40 Upper-leg length 5.00 

4.81 Lower-leg length 5.04 

5.18 Foot length 5.92 

2.44 



114 



iH)MF.s'ricAri:i) animals and i'l.wrs 



taken to. sa\ , our (|uailcT iiuh ami the wri^lus nioii- aocuratch? 
l"hc answer is that exporioiuc has shown that those aio sulti- 
ciontlx accurate, and it the nicasurcnuMits luul been taken Iukt, 
sav to the tjuarter inch, the kibor of calculating woukl have been 
doubled, ami all without alteriui;" ov inipro\in>;" results in any 
substantial way. What. now. is to decide the ([uestion as to 
accuracy of measurenu nts ? 

Speaking generally, the object is not so much to get accurate 
measurements of all the individuals as such, as it is to make 
them comparable one with others ; and it will be found by trial 
that measurements taken to the half inch in length of ears of 
ct>rn, for example, will give practically the same results as those 
taken at a closer measure, as one fourth or one eighth of an 
inch. Not onlv is this true, but it is practically im]X)ssible to get 
the length of an ear of C(Mn correcth' within an eighth oi an 
inch, as will be found b\- trial. 

On the other hand, if we should take the measurements onlv 
to one inch. lhe\- would be {oo far apart for smooth distributions. 
The best easy test of the measurement to be chosen for "class" 
grouping", as it is called, is whether it gives a fairlv " smooth " 
distribution. A glance at the distribution of length or of weight 
of ears will show that the figures slope off each wa\- from the 
middle at a fairh" uniform rate without an_\' sudden break and 
witln>ut anv number being greater than its neighbor nearer the 
middle. This is the best test of sutlicient accuracw In order to 
save labor the measurement will be taken as "' coarse " as 
jDossible, but not so coarse as to break uj) the smoothness of the 
distribution or to make the groui:)s too few. A little experience 
siH^n develops a judgment at this point which is better than 
anything" that can be learned hv instruction ; but with all the ex- 
perience of experts sonic trials have to be matle whenever a 
new problem is taken, in order to determine the most desirable 
"scheme of nieasurements." 

Suggestions as to grouping. After tlie scheme of measure- 
ment has been decided as inches, half inches, ounces, pounds. 



VARIABILITY OF A SINGLK CHARACrKR 115 

feet, or what not — and the "class marks''^ fixed, then the 
student is ready for measurements. The next question is where 
to record the various individuals measured. For example, sup- 
pose in measuring corn we have adopted the scheme, 4.0, 4.5, 
5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, etc. We will rarely find an ear that 
measures exactly on the even inch or half inch. Most of them 
will fall somewhere between these various marks and will need 
to be assigned to one group or another somewhat arbitrarily. 
Now the rule is to assign to the nearest group. Thus suppose 
an ear measures 7^ inches; it would be put into the 7.0-inch 
class because it is nearer 7 inches than it is to any other measure- 
ment of our scheme. Should it measure 6| inches, it would 
also go into the 7.0-inch class, and in doing so it would correct 
the slight error made in putting the other ear into a class too 
short for it. On the principle that as many will be too long as 
will be too short, we depend upon the law of chance'-^ to keep 
our errors even. 

On the same principle, if the ear should read 7^, it would go 
into the 7.5-inch class; but if it should be 7^, it would stand 
exactly halfway between the two classes, and here a careful de- 
cision must be made as to where it should be put. As it stands 
midway between 7 and 7.5 there are no more reasons for its 
going one way than the other, and in choosing a scheme of 
measurements it is well to avoid a scale that is likely to make 
too many fall upon this middle point. 

There are but two things to be done with these midclass 
measures. They can all be put into the class above them, on 
the principle of the business man that calls half a cent a whole 
cent and then discards all smaller fractions ; or, what is more 
accurate, every alternate measurement of this kind may be put 
once above and next below; that is, the first time a 7.25 
measurement occurs it may be called 7.5, and then, to offset the 

' The class marks are the various measurements, as 4 inclu-s, 4.5 inches, 
5 inches, etc., that make up the scheme of measurements. 
2 " Principles of Breeding," p. 365. 



Il6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

error, it may be called an e^•cn 7 the next time it occurs. The 
only trouble with this plan is the difficulty of keeping account 
of the many assignments. It is much easier to always put them 
in the class above (or below, if the worker prefers), but a slight 
error is introduced, affecting, of course, the mean, to raise or to 
lower it, tht)ugh ever so slightly. In all but the best work it is 
better to admit this error than to keep an accurate account of 
the alternate assignment of the midclass measurements. 

One more caution must be mentioned in connection with 
grouping measurements. Suppose we have a series running, we 
will say, as follows : 10, 1 1 , 12, 13, etc., up to 50. If now we take 
them as they are, there will be some forty-one different groups, 
involving immense and unnecessary labor. The thing to do is to 
combine them into fewer groups, but in doing so it is important 
to observe great care in choosing the scheme for grouping. 

For example, suppose we attempt to group them as follows : 
10, 14, 18, 22, etc., reducing them to one fourth of the original 
number. What, now, will be the result .'' Consider the numbers, 
for instance, between 14 and 1 8. Wliat is to be done with them .'' 
That is, how are the numbers represented by 15, 16, and 17 to 
be recognized in our new scheme.'' It will be noticed at once 
that we have chosen a scheme with tJnrc values between. Of 
these three values, i 5 will of course go down with its new class 
mark, 14 ; and 17 will go up to 18. But what is to become of 
16 } Wliichever way we put it the result will be to distort the 
distribution and prevent its being smooth ; that is, it will put 
sudden humps and high spots into it, like saw teeth, that arise 
not from the variability in the true measurements but in the 
error introduced in the manner of grouping them. 

The better way would be to choose a new scheme with an 
even number between the new values. For example, suppose 
we choose the following: 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, etc. Now there 
are four values between 20 and 25, namely, 21, 22, 23, 24, of 
which two can go up to 25 and two go down to 20, thus keep- 
ing true relative values and insuring a smooth distribution. 



VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER 1 1 7 

All this means that in choosing schemes of measurements 
and assigning values to class groups care must always be taken 
that the assignments are fair as between groups, in which case 
the distribution will be smooth and fairly representative of the 
population, all of which is far more important than is extreme 
accuracy in individual measurements. 

Suggestions as to numbers. The number of cases needed is 
a rather difficult matter without getting involved in the question 
of probable error, ^ which is too complicated for consideration 
here. In general, large numbers are necessary. For work in 
corn 200 to 300 give good results, and in most ordinary prob- 
lems this number answers very well. For extreme accuracy and 
for certain classes of problems much larger numbers are needed, 
but problems of that character involve considerations that are 
outside of our present purpose, which is to acquaint the student 
with the ordinary operations of statistical work. 

Suggestions as to taking samples. When a comparatively 
small number of individuals (200 to 500) is to be taken as rep- 
resentative of the entire race to which they belong, it is neces- 
sary that the sample be carefully chosen. It should be what is 
called a " random sample." That does not mean a careless 
sample taken without regard to obvious differences, but it means 
a fair and representative sample. If the corn, for example, is 
husked and in a pile, there would be no better way than to 
shovel up the sample, taking whatever the scoop might deliver. 
But if the corn is in the sta.lk, the matter is different. If the 
ears are to be picked off, they must all be taken for a given 
area, for no man can be trusted to sort fairly, and areas enough 
must be taken to fairly represent the field. 

Again, suppose one portion of the field is good, but that the 
corn in the low ground is partially drowned out, and the ears, of 
course, are small. In this case the proper proportion of the poor 
corn must be included or the result can be considered as repre- 
sentative only of the good portion of the field. 

1 " Principles of Breeding," pp. 437-440. 



ii8 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



Advantages of statistical studies. I'rom the .siaiKl[)()iiu of 
improvement, howowr, these methods i;i\e the breeder an 
opportunity to study eharacters carefullw to know their average 
value and the extent of their variabihty. Not only that, but 
records kept from year to \ear will show the breeder what 
progress, if any, he is making, and to what extent, if at all, the 
animal or plant is responding to his selection.^ 

Exercises. The student may well have mucli practice in solving distribu- 
tions for mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of variability. Eight 
actual distributions are appended, five in length and three in ounces, but 
the student should have practice in taking his own measurements and in 
making his own scheme and grouping. These different distributions arise 
from different varieties or from different conditions of growth. 



Length of ear 


Lengtti of ear 




Weight of ear 




y 1 ^ 


/ 


r 


/ 


/ 


/ 


V 


/ ! / 


/ 


in. 1 




in. 








oz. 






2.5 1 I 




3-0 








I 




I 




30 


3 





3-5 








2 


5 


4 


3 


3-5 


I 


3 


4.0 


I 




5 


3 


S j 9 


8 


4.0 


I 


5 


4-5 


I 


I 


6 


4 


16 


II 


II 


4-5 


'> 


8 


5.0 


2 


3 


8 


5 


24 


26 


16 


5.0 


/ 


10 


5-5 


5 


7 


iS 


6 


24 


31 


24 


5-5 


1 1 


'4 


6.0 


8 


12 


41 


7 


38 


40 


28 


6.0 


II 


29 


6.5 


ID 


21 


54 


8 


41 


39 


32 


6.5 


24 


33 


7.0 


15 


33 


73 


9 


35 


37 


39 


7-0 37 


54 


7-5 


-5 


56 


65 


10 


27 


32 


36 


7-5 ' 3S 


59 


8.0 


46 


79 


5- 


1 1 


24 


17 


35 


8.0 68 


47 


8.5 


47 


68 


30 


12 


II 


13 


22 


8.5 yz 


38 


9.0 


44 


55 


12 


'3 


7 


8 


14 


9.0 6t 


20 


9-5 


3- 


21 


3 


•4 


2 


3 


7 


9-5 33 


5 


lO.O 


12 


3 


I 


'5 


2 




4 


lo.o 19 




10.5 


5 


2 




16 






I 


10.5 


8 




II. 

II-5 
12.0 


4 

I 














397 


327 




2 58 


362 


368 




264 


271 


280 



M= 8.015 M= 7.'4> 
<T= 1-348 <r= 1.267 
C= 16.82 C= 17.74 



M= 8.322 M= 7.065 M= 7.063 
<T= 1.217 <r= 1.018 a= 1.070 
C= 14.62 0=12.78 0=15.15 



M= 7.901 M= 7.860 M= 8.807 
o-= 2.657 <r= 2.592 <T= 2.854 
0=33.63 0=32.98 C= 32.41 



1 " I'rinciples of IJreeding," pp. 434, 435. 



VARIABILITY OF A SINGLE CHARACTER 



119 



Circumference of ear- 




Number of 


rows on cob 




;•'' 


/ 


f 


/ 


V 


/ 


/ 


f 


4-5 


I 


2 




10 






I 


4.8 


2 


5 


I 


12 


6 


2 


7 


5-1 


15 


13 


I 


14 


25 


28 


51 


54 


28 


'9 


9 


16 


85 


77 


99 


57 


46 


29 


27 


18 


103 


i'5 


79 


6.0 


70 


48 


50 


20 


59 


81 


27 


6-3 


58 


80 


67 


22 


26 


26 


18 


6.6 


50 


67 


89 


24 


8 


I 


I 


6.9 


34 


58 


85 


26 


I 


4 




7.2 


5 


18 


23 


28 




I 




7-5 


I 


5 


13 










7.8 






I 










8.1 






I 












310 


344 


l>(yi 




3^^:> 


335 


283 



M = 6.121 M = 6.304 M = 6.505 
(7 = 0.530 <r= 0.579 cr = 0.499 
C = 8.66 C = 9. 18 C = 6.90 



M = 17.91 1 M = 18.107 M = 16.869 
0-= 2.501 0-= 2.417 0-= 2.377 
€=13.96 €=13.35 € = 14.09 



Original problems, l^esides the solving of distributions given 
in the text, the student should have practice in devising and 
solving problems of his own. I know of no better method of 
teaching variability, and at the same time insuring rational 
conceptions of heredity, than by this methodical and accurate 
study of characters taken singly. 

For this purpose the student may use not only dimensions 
like length and circumference, but he may use weights and num- 
bers. He may take the heights of pupils in the school, the 
grades they make in classes, or he may take the yield of milk 
of many cows, or the weights of milk at the creamery. Anything 

1 Experience shows that it is better to take values by 0.25 instead of 0.30; 
thus, 4.50, 4.75, 5.00, 5.25, etc. These distributions were made smooth only 
by careful assignment of alternate measurements. This scheme of grouping 
has been discarded for this reason. 

2 Below each /"column will be found the corresponding values. Thus of the 
first frequency, footing 310, the M = 6.121, the a = 0.530, and the C = 8.66. 
In this way the answers can be identified for each problem contained in these 
tables. 



I20 



DOMESTICATKD ANIMALS AND TLAN IS 



that is variable, and wiicic vaiiabilitv can be accuratelv meas- 
ured, will afford a problem in statistical determination. 



mu,k and f.\t vkow 1 200 cows in 
Illinois Dairies ^ 



Milk 


Fat 


r 


/ 


r 


/ 


1,500 


10 


-S 


■^ 


::.50o 


5^) 


75 


J 2 


3,500 


17S 


'-5 


'73 


4.500 


256 


'75 


-97 


5,500 


253 


--5 


349 


6,500 


209 


-75 


224 


7,500 


'31 


3-5 


/ - 


8,500 


63 


375 


39 


9.500 


28 


4-5 


'7 


10.500 


10 


475 


4 


1 1,500 


- 


5-5 


I 


12,500 


I 








1 200 




1200 



M = 


218.25 


ff = 


71794 


C = 


32.90 



M = 55i5 

ff z= I77O.I 

C= 32.H 

The solution of the problem on milk and fat tolls us that 
cows vary among themselves 1770 pounds of milk and over 71 
pounds of fat per year, but that the real variability of the two 
characters is practically identical — 32.11 and 32.90. 

References. 1. " I'lindples of BrLX^ding " (chap. xii). Davenport. 
2. " Statistical Methods." C. B. Davenport. 

^ From the records of the dairy department of the Universitv of IlHnois; 
data collected by Professor Fraser. 



CHAPTER IX 

HOW CHARACTERS ARE TRANSMITTED 

Every species of its own kind • The machinery of transmission • Fertiliza- 
tion • Fertilization in general ■ The material transmitted • Chromosomes • 
Development, or growth and differentiation • Termination to growth 

The facts brought out in the last chapter show that many of 
the differences between individuals arise from variability in the 
degree of development of a single character, and that much 
opportunity for improvement lies in this field of selection. 

There is, however, another and a greater cause of individual 
differences, and that is in the particular unit characters present, 
l^'or example, everybody would recognize that there is more dif- 
ference between a small draft horse and a racer than between 
the small drafter and a larger one of the same type. 

This brings us to a study of the transmission of unit char- 
acters with a view to their control between parent and offspring 
for the purposes of improvement. The manner of this trans- 
mission, it will be seen, is the controlling factor in heredity and 
affords the principal basis for improvement. 

Every species of its own kind. In a later chapter heredity 
and environment will be discussed, but here it is sufficient to 
call attention to the very large and obvious fact that whatever 
the influence of environment, the differences between individ- 
uals are not only great but inherent. 

A kernel of corn and a kernel of wheat may be planted side 
by side in the same soil. If the soil be fertile and the season 
favorable, the crop will be good. If, on the other hand, the soil 
be poor or the season bad, then the crop will be small, but the 
one will be corn and the other zvheat in either case ; all of which 
is but another way of saying that the real nature of the plant or 



122 DOMES rUAlKl) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

the animal is not in the cnxironnK'nt. hut is inherent in the 
organism, the development heini;- inllueneed but not determined 
by the eonditions of lite. 

This partieular nature whieh makes eorn to be eorn and not 
wheat, and wheat to be wheat and not barley, — this partieular 
nature was implanted by the ancestry and will be transmitted to 
the descendants, in \'arying degrees perliaps, but yet true to 
nature if not absolute!) true to type ; that is to say, the descend- 
ants of corn will be corn and not wheat, for, as we have already 
noted, every individual will transmit all the characters of his 
race and no others. 

The machinery of transmission. 1 low, now, is this effected ? 
How can the particular traits or unit characters that distinguish 
corn from wheat, or jjcrhaps one kind of corn from another, — how 
can these specific differences, sometimes slight, be carried over 
and appear again with more or less exactness in the offspring ? 

To one accustomed to seeing eveiything jirodueing after its 
kind, it all seems very natural, not to sa\' inevitable, that this 
should be so ; but the more the matter is studietl the more 
ditlicult it becomes, and no subject in the realm of living- 
matter is to-day giving scientists more trouble than this ver\- 
one of transmission. 

Whoever w'ill take the trouble to visit a cornfield just after 
it is coming into tassel will ha\-e the opportimit\- of observing 
nature at work about some of its most important business. 

First of all, he will see the embryo ear about halfway up the 
stalk, wath a long fringe of tender " silk " ]3ushing out from the 
end and after a time growing longer and dangling in the wind. 
If now the husks be carefully stripped down, the embryo cob 
will be discovered, and it will be found that each particular silk 
runs down and is attached separatelv and independently to a 
definite spot, vvhieli will one da\-, if all goes well, become a new 
kernel of corn. 

Now, if all does go well, the silk will, after a few davs. wither 
away, the spot on the cob at its base will begin to grow, and will 



MOW C:iIARAC'rKRS ARE TRANSMITTED 



123 



in f^ood time dcvcloi) into a single kernel of corn ; but if all 
does not <;<) well, the silk will <^ro\v longer for a time, and finally 
wither away, but the kernel will not develop, and nothing but a 
bare cob will be found at husking time. What is it that decides 
whether there is to be or is not to be a kernel ? The answer 
to that question involves the whole machinery of transmission. 

Iwery farmer boy knows 
that at the top of the stiUk 
is the tassel, and that this 
tassel has the habit at times 
of shedding large amounts 
of yellow powder, particu- 
larly after a rain or in the 
still hours of the early morn- 
ing after a warm but quiet 
night. Most farmer boys 
know that in some way this 
golden-y.ellow dust, or "pol- 
len," is connected with the 
crop, but few of them know 
in just what way. 

If we use a microscope to magnify size, and see exactly what 
is involved and what is going on, it would be somewhat as 
follows : 

First of all, the silk would be found to be soft and pulpy 
throughout its entire length, somewhat " sticky " and branched 
at the top or outer end, and connected at the base with a single 
cell, called an ovule. ^ Now this ovule is the important part, for 
it is what develops into the kernel of corn if all s^ocs well. 




Fig. 18. Ear covered for ten days with a 
paper sack preventing fertilization. The 
silk remained fresh and continued to grow. 
It has been known to reach a length of 
two feet while awaiting the pollen 



1 A "cell " is the structural unit of the plant or animal. As a building is 
made of bricks, so the plant or animal body is made up of cells or sacks filled 
with a semifluid matter known as protoplasm, which is a kind of general name 
for the material of different parts of the body ; that is to say, the protoplasm 
of muscle, whose business it is to contract, is quite different from the proto- 
plasm of liver, whose business it is to manufacture a definite secretion. The 
cells of different parts of the body structure contain, therefore, very different 



124 nuMKSlllA TKl) ANIMALS AND IM.W IS 

It will be found that the characteristic thiui; whicli nornially 
happens is this : one of the Httle particles of \ ellow dust drops 
upon the sticky tip of the silk, adheres, and begins at once to 
grow, not upward like a seed, but (Akoi the silk throughout its 
entire length to the ovule at its base. 

Now the pollen grain is itself, like the ovule, a sex cell, though 
a veiy small one, with its nucleus and its surrounding protoplasm. 
The latter is consumed during the progress down the silk, but 
the nucleus descends until it reaches and unites with the nucleus 
of the o\ule. 

Fertilization, riiis is feriili/alion, after which the ovule, 
which would otherwise wither awav, is capable of developing 
into a kernel of corn, which will be pure or mixed as to its unit 
characters according as the two nuclei that blended for its 
development were of the same or of different parentage. 

The unit characters of the parents are undoubtedl\- contained 
in the two nuclei, and these are what decide the character of the 
offspring. It seems inconceivable that so small a bit of matter 
as a pollen grain or the nucleus of the o\ulc, each far smaller 
than the head of a pin, can carrv so manv and such profound 
potentialities ; but the character of these two nuclei alone deter- 
mine whether the kernel shall be white. xelUnv. or mixed, sweet, 
field, or pop corn. If both are from white parents, then the ker- 
nel will be white and will transmit white characters onlv ; but if 
one be from a white parent and the en her from a \ellow, then 
the kernel will be mixed and will in its turn transmit both white 
and yellow characters. Corresponding results will follow if one 
should be field or pop corn and the other should be sweet corn. 

Moreover, this kernel, whatever its parentage, may afterward 
"grow" and in its turn give rise to an entire new corn plant, 

kinds of protoplasm, each with its own particular function to discharge. These 
cells lie closely packed together, like rubber bags filled with thickened water, 
and near the center of each is its " nucleus," which is its densest portion and 
the part which takes the initiative in cell division and growth. If it happens 
to be a sex cell, the nucleus is the repository of the hereditary matter and the 
seat of transmission. 



HOW c:iIy\RACTERS ARE TRANSMITTED 125 



bearing both silk and tassel and producing both ovules and pol- 
len grains, each new kernel being independent of its neighbors. 

Fertilization in general. 

This, roughly speaking, is 
characteristic of fertilization 
in general, whether plant or 
animal. A small male cell 
(the pollen grain in plants or 
the spermatozoon in animals; 
meets and fuses with the 
larger 1 female cell (ovule in 
plants or ovum in animals), 
which is thereafter capable 
of developing into a new in- 
dividual possessed of all the 
characters of both parents. 

The method of effecting 
this union of the nuclei in 
fertilization and the time at 
which it takes place vary 
greatly in different species. 
In many plants both sex cells 
are borne by the same indi- 
vidual, either in one flower, 
as in the apple and the elm, 

or in separate flowers, as in corn.^ In others, as the chestnut and 
the box elder, the male flowers are borne on one plant and the 

1 Though the female cell is always larger than the male, the nucleus, which 
seems to be the essential part, has the same number of chromosomes (see 
chromosomes), so that the male and the female parents have identical powers 
in transmission. The differences in size are apparently due to the amount of 
protoplasm surrounding the nucleus, probably as food material for the develop- 
ing young and in no way connected with heredity. This difference is some- 
times great, as in the egg of the hen, most of which is food material for the 
developing chick, while the male cell is microscopic. 

2 This bisexuality, or hermaphroditism, is also found in certain lower animals, 
as the earthworm. 




Fig. 19. Kernels of corn growing on 

the tip of the tassel ; occasional but 

not common 



120 noMKSrU-A TKl) ANIMALS AND PLAN PS 

fonialo on anDlhor. folUnvinj;- the plan of the hii;hcr animals, 
in which the two soxcs arc al\va\s idcniitictl with separate 
individuals. See also Fig. 19. which shows that the tassel is a 
modified ear with the female flowers normally undeveloped. 

In the higher animals the ova are prt)duced periodically and 
fertilization is variousl}' effected. In fishes, for example, the 
eggs are fertilized by the male after having been deposited by the 
female. In frogs the eggs are fertilized during their deposition. 
In birds the eggs are " laid " as fast as they mature, but unless 
thev have been fertilized by the spermatozoa of the male previous 
to being laid, they will not " hatch," just as the unfertilized ovules 
of the corn fail to develop, leaving the cob Ixire of kernels. 

In mammals the ova ripen periodically like the eggs of the 
bird, with this difference, that if fertilized before escaj^ing from 
the bod\-. thev are not discharged at all, but are retainctl in the 
uterus of the mother during embr)H)nic development and are 
carried there until birth. The ova of mammals, unlike those 
of birds, are not supplied with suthcient nutriment to last 
through their comparatively long period of dc\elopment, and 
this prenatal food is supplied directly through the blood of 
the mother. 

The student hardly needs to be reminded that this blending 
of nuclei takes place and development follows only when the 
nuclei are not too dissimilar. Ihh- example, wheat would not be 
fertilized by pollen of corn, but it has been fertilized in' that 
of r)e. This mixing of ver\' different races is known as h\hridi- 
zation. The most frequent case of hybrids among animals is 
the common mule, but a Inbrid has been made between the 
lion and the tiger and very frecjuently among plants, as between 
the raspberry and the blackberry. We pass now to a more care- 
ful consideration of what is involved in transmission. 

The material transmitted. All that is " handed down" from 
parent to t)ffspring is, therefore, the minute bit of matter con- 
tained in the two nuclei ami the small amount of surrounding 
protoplasm, — microscopic in almost all cases. Of course a single 



HOW CHARACTERS ARE TRANSMITTED 127 

ovule with its |)olU'ii nucleus would develop but a single kernel, 
and the operation described must be repeated for every one of 
the thousand or more kernels of the ear, each of which for 
present purposes is a distinct individual. 

The same is true for each grain of wheat, though in this case 
the ovule and the pollen are produced in the same flower and 
close together under the scale or chaff. So the process could 
be traced for every seed of all species, for each is a new indi- 
vidual. Among animals, also, but two nuclei are involved for 
each new individual whether as small as the cricket or as large 
as the elephant. 

Little enough is known of the essential constitution of these 
remarkable bits of living matter called nuclei, but that little is 
too much to discuss exhaustively here.^ It is enough for present 
purposes to call attention to the wonderful fact that these two 
bits of matter, too small to be seen and studied with the naked 
eye, carry with them all the characters of the race ; moreover, 
as they constitute the only material transmitted from parent to 
offspring, they are the only vehicles of transmission. Other 
nuclei from other parts of the body can repeatedly divide, absorb- 
ing food as they do so, constituting growth, but these nuclei 
from the reproductive cells, excepting in certain lower species, 
do not grow till after union with others from the opposite sex. 

Chromosomes. The nucleus of the animal or plant cell is 
something more than a formless bit of m.atter endowed with 
life. If the nuclei of several species be stained and examined 
under a high-power microscope, each will be found to contain 
a definite number of rods, rings, or other bodies, always the 
same in all the cells of all the individuals of the same species, 
but differing in different species. These are called chromosomes. 

Another peculiarity about the chromosomes is that for all 
species that propagate bisexually the number is even ; thus in 
mouse, trout, and lily it is 24 ; in ox, guinea pig, onion, and 

1 It maybe conveniently pursued further in " Principles of breeding," chaps, 
vii and viii. 



128 DOMHSTR'AIKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

prolxibK' man it is i() ; in ascaris, 4 or possibly 2; while in 
ailcniia it is 16S. 

There is still another peeuliarit}' about the chromosomes, 
namely, that the nuclei from the sf.v cells /invr but Juilf tJic 
usual tiuDtbcr; Ixit after union of the two nuclei from the sepa- 
rate parents, the full number is restored, and from then on cell 
division and growth begin and proceed in the usual way, barring 
accident, till full maturity is attained. 

These chromosomes, therefore, appear of importance, not 
only in growth (for the operation of cell division seems to be 
preceded if not characterized by the division of the chromo- 
somes), but they appear to be /><?/- exccllciicc the hereditary sub- 
stance, that is, the bearers of heredity ; all of which encourages 
the belief that most characters are in some wa\' identified with 
definite portions of the hereditary matter of the nucleus, that is, 
with its chromosomes. 

Development, or growth and differentiation. The process by 
which these two nuclei after fusion succeed in i)roducing a 
new individual combines two phenomena, nameh'. growth and 
differentiation. 

The process of growth means that this new cell, which is 
made up of two others, is able now to absorb food materials and 
to first increase in size, then to multiply in nLunbers by the 
process of repeated and indefinite division, until what was once 
a single cell comes to be a new indixidual with thousands of cells. 

This is growth and it is astonishing enough, but the chief 
marvel is the differentiation that attends it. When these thousands 
of cells have developed from the one original, it will be found 
that the\' are not all alike ; some are stem, others root, still others 
leaf, fiower, or fruit. In the case of animals some are muscle 
cells, others constitute li\er. brain and nerve, arm, leg, or eye. 

In other words, growth has been attended b)- differentiation, 
so that the single minute mother cell has been able to give rise 
to many cells of many kinds, onh- a few of which are able to 
repeat the process of reproduction. Not onl)' has differentiation 



HOW CHARACTERS ARE TRANSMITTED 129 

taken place, producing different parts of many kinds, but they 
are of the same kind and in the same position as in t\\Q parents. 

In a few cases accidents happen and devek^pment does not 
proceed in the orderly manner that commonly characterizes 
reproduction. These cases are extremely rare, but of sufficient 
interest to constitute the material of a separate chapter, dealing 
with what happens when development goes wrong. 

Termination to growth. Still another marvel attends upon 
growth and differentiation, and that is, that it should all stop at 
the right point. It is difficult to comprehend that a man's arm 
should grow at all so as to be an arm and not a leg, but once 
started it is still more difficult to understand what should stop 
the growth at exactly or approximately the right time, and not 
allow it to proceed indefinitely, as it does in the nails, claws^ 
and, to some extent, in the teeth of animals. 

In general, plants have no "typical termination" to their 
growth, but increase in size as long as life lasts ; that is, they 
seem unable to discharge their function except in connection 
with new growth and by means of recently formed tissues, while 
animals " get their growth," that is, function independently of 
new growth. 

Summary. The only possibility of transmission of the unit characters of 
the parents to the offspring is by means of the minute bits of matter con- 
tained in the single sex cell from each parent, because it is the only material 
handed down to the new individual. 

How this microscopic bit of matter can contain all the potentialities of 
the race and be able not only to grow and to differentiate with growth, but 
to stop at the right point, — how it can do all this is a mystery, but the fact 
is doubtless connected with the definite " architecture " or structure of the 
germ plasm which contains always a definite number of chromosomes. 

Exercises. 1. Study the formation of pollen and the location of the pistil 
together with the method of getting the pollen upon the stigma in a variety 
of plants. Oats, wheat, beans, sweet peas, and hollyhocks are especially 
recommended. 

2. Examine frog spawn, if any is available, and, if possible, obtain 
mounted slides showing the early stages of embryological development. 

3. Set a nest of eggs under a hen and break one every other day after 
the first week. 



CIIAl'Tl'-R X 
WHEN DEVELOPMENT GOES WRONG 

Differentiation with development • Underdevelopment, or dwarfinj^ • Over- 
development, or giants • Arrested development of a single character or 
part • Overdevelopment of a single part • Doubling of parts • Fusing of 
parts • When unit characters get misplaced • Abnormal growths 

Differentiation with development. The greatest niarxcl of 
development is differentiation. Tliat two nuclei not only from 
different cells but from different individuals should fuse, absorb 
food, and divide and subdivide into not hundreds but thousands 
of others, — all this is wonderful enough, particularl\- wiien we 
remember that without this union neither would be capable of 
dividing at all.^ 

After all, however, the marvel is that with development comes 
differentiation ; that is, that the result of growth is not a lump 
of formless matter. On the contrary, here a leg. there an arm 
"" buds " out ; here an ear and there an eye or a tooth appears ; 
here a lung forms to take in air and there a heart develops to 
pump over the body the stream of digested food that we call the 
blood, — and so on, bit by bit, the whole complicated structure 
of the body arises, each part in its proper place ; and not only 
that, but in general an exceedingly striking resemblance to the 
particular parentage results, so that the being which develops 
from a fertilized ovum of the horse, for example, is not only 
another horse, instead of a cow or a pig, but it is a particular 
kind of horse, depending upon the special indixiduals from 
which he was born. 

1 There are a few exceptions to this statement, but they are concerned with 
parthenogenesis, which is not involved in the subject matter here under 
discussion. 



WHEN DEVELOPMENT GOES WRONG 131 

It must not be assumed, however, that development always 
proceeds in this regular manner nor that the results are all 
perfect, A great variety of departures from the usual plan may 
occur, each with its attendant consequences, some of which are 
worth mentioning here, not so much for their own sake as to 
make the student intelligent upon the really complicated proc- 
esses involved in development, and with which we must reckon 
in all attempts at improvement. 

Underdevelopment, or dwarfing. In order to produce a per- 
fect individual, differentiation must not only occur in proper 
form, but each of the various parts must grow to the normal 
size. If growth stops short of this point, it is a case of dwarf- 
ing. The dwarf is like the normal individual except as to size.^ 
The separate cells of the body of the dwarf are of the usual 
magnitude, but the number is fewer ; that is, cell division ^ has 
not continued the normal length of time. 

Nearly all animals are subject to dwarfing, though it is ap- 
proximately rare, if not unknown, in some. It is common with 
human beings as well as with horses, dogs, and chickens, in 
which dwarf species have developed. 

The dwarf is very rare, if not unknown, among cattle and 
sheep, though, as in all species, a good many individuals are 
"undersized." The "titman," or "runt," in the litter of pigs 
is really a dwarf, the dwarfing process often being due to 
insufficient food at the start. 

Dwarfing due to this cause will sometimes disappear with 
improvement in the conditions of life, though, in general, size 
and development lost in early life are seldom fully restored. 
Cell division and growth are more rapid at birth than ever after- 
wards, a steady decline setting in that does not permit full repa- 
ration for early checks to normal development, — a fact which 

1 So-called dwarfs are often misshapen things, but in these instances other 
accidents than dwarfing have occurred, as will be shown later. 

2 For a description of cell division in connection with growth, see" Principles 
of Breeding," pp. 145-152. 



132 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

shows the importance of early food and care for the N'oung of 
our domesticated species. 

Plants are easily dwarfed, cither by scarcity of food or by 
repeated planting of immature seed. Many species have their 
dwarf varieties, though others are artificiall\- j^roducctl by graft- 
ing on other and smaller species, as. for example, the pear, 
which, is dwarfed by grafting upon stock of the quince. 

Overdevelopment, or giants. In normal development and 
differentiation, growth should not only proceed to the proper 
point, but it is fully as important that it stop at that point. If it 
does not, then overgrowth takes place and a giant is produced. 

As the dwarf is the result of too little cell division and too 
few cells, so the giant is the product of too much cell division 
and too many cells ; that is to say, of growth that did not stop 
at the right point. 

Giants are common in man and frequent in cattle. So far as 
is known to the writer, the}' are imknown in horses, sheep, and 
pigs, though these species can all be increased in size somewhat 
above the normal by extreme feed and care in earh- life as well 
as by selection of parents above the normal. 

Neither giants nor dwarfs possess special interest to the 
improver, because if we needed a smaller or a larger race than 
the normal, we should not depend upon these occasional indi- 
viduals, which are abnormal, to produce it. Their mention here 
is for the purpose of making the student somewhat intelligent 
on the processes of life, to do which requires a number and 
variety of examples involving various phases of abnormal 
development. 

Arrested development of a single character or part. Dwarfing 
may take place with respect to one or more parts or characters, 
while others proceed to normal development, giving a more or 
less distorted body. 

This form of abnormality has many manifestations. In some 
cases, for example, a part is entirely missing, as if the unit char- 
acter had been lost, as in a case, known to the writer, of a man 



WHEN DEVELOPMENT GOES WRONG 133 

whose feet were attached directly to the body, the legs having 
never developed. 

A great variety of missing parts might be mentioned and 
specimens innumerable may be seen in almost any museum.^ 
One or both horns may fail to develop or the two may fuse into 
one. A well-known calf in the Chicago stockyards never had 
but one front leg and was used for years as a " penholder." ^ 

Men are frequently born minus one or both arms, or parts of 
the arm, and a student of the writer's, normal in every other 
way, had no forefinger on the right hand. Almost every neigh- 
borhood will afford similar examples. 

Not infrequently the nondevelopment of a part becomes a 
regular and constitutional matter. The male narwhal, for ex- 
ample, develops the canine tooth as a long, twisted tusk, often 
attaining a length of seven or eight feet. The peculiarity is 
that normally only the left tusk develops, the right remaining 
rudimentary. In rare cases both are developed, biLt 7iever the 
right without the left. 

The snake has commonly but one lung, the other regularly 
failing of development along with his rudimentary legs, which 
are still represented by a few remains of bones in the pelvic 
region of such large specimens as the python.^ 

The whale is not a fish but a mammal, like a cow. It is 
developed from an old-time land animal, and its rudimentary 
legs are still to be found as parts of the skeleton. Both teeth 
and hair develop during the fetal life, but are absorbed and 
disappear before birth, never developing afterward. 

1 Abnormalities are sufficiently common and curious to give rise to their 
special study, which is known as teratology. 

2 A penholder is, in stockyard vernacular, an animal that is used to hold 
a yard or pen, which, so long as it is occupied, belongs to the owner of the 
occupant. 

8 Snakes, of course, are developed from prehistoric species with legs and 
probably at that time supplied with two lungs. The modern lethargic life ren- 
ders such lung power unnecessary, and the restricted space in the elongated 
and constricted body makes it also impossible. So the modern snake gets 
along very well with one lung. 



134 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

The ostrich is losing his useless \vini;s, and those of the 
apteryx have t;"one, except that some ot the bones can \et be 
found just under the skin of the breast. And so examples of 
missing or disappearing parts could be multiplied indefinitely, 
but enough have been given to show that development does not 
always proceed regularly, and that the arrest of one part does 
not necessarily prevent the development of others. 

The most important phase of this subject to the general 
student is in the field of the mental and moral characters, espe- 
cially with people. Idiocy is but the arrested dexelopment of 
one or all of the mental faculties, just as insanity is their break- 
ing dt)wn from insuflicient power originally or from overwork 
or abuse in life. 

Just as we have idiotic people, so we ha\c idiots among 
horses and dogs, a fact that destroys or greath' lessens their 
value in proportion to the kind of work we expect them to do. 
We have also insane individuals in both species, and some of 
the most dangerous runaways are due to sudden insanity of the 
horse, brought on by fright, old age, or disease. 

Both horsemen and dog fanciers sliould understand that in 
these two species we are dealing with mental faculties of an 
order so high that an\' disturbance or shortage is a serious 
matter. Other animals are of a much lower order of mentality 
and we depend less upon their intelligence, so that relative 
idiocy is not so noticeable, nor is insanitv so likely to appear, 
because they lead, u{)on the whole, a relatively tranquil life. 
Occasionally, however, a steer loses his head, as when being 
driven in a strange place, ami w hen he does it is a good time 
to find cover, ^ 

The most serious consequences follow the arrested develop- 
ment of the mental and moral faculties in man. We are only 
recently coming to recognize these unfortunate individuals as 
degenerates and to realize their wholK' dangerous character. A 

^ This happens frequently about the stockyards in all markets, though 
commonly animals in large numbers are extremely iiuiei. 



WHEN DEVELOPMENT GOES WRONG 135 

trip through any of our prisons by one who knows what to look 
for and is quick to recognize signs of arrested development will 
convince him that one of the problems of civilization is to deal 
with members of our own race who are not sufficiently developed 
to exist under civilized conditions except as a constant menace 
to society. When these facts are more generally realized we 
shall free ourselves of much maudlin sentiment and be on the 
road to solving this most perplexing and awful problem, — the 
problem of the human degenerate.^ 

Overdevelopment of a single part. Just as a part may fail 
to develop without destroying the individual,^ so also can one 
or more parts attain extreme development, while most or all of 
the others may remain normal. A little of this commonly occurs 
among giants, which are, in man, generally disproportionally 
developed in the thighs ; indeed, most extremely tall people 
get their height at this point. 

Often the liver will begin growing and attain enormous size 
(hypertrophy) ; or if one kidney is removed, the other may be- 
come greatly enlarged through doing the work of both. 

If the spleen is removed, the lymphatic glands of other parts 
of the body become greatly enlarged (compensating hypertrophy), 
a phenomenon akin to the sharpened hearing of blind people, 
but only partially comparable from the fact that practice and 
concentration of attention help to explain the skillful use of 
hearing by the blind. 

1 The extent to which the human animal may be destitute of one or more of 
our higher faculties can be illustrated only by appealing to the fact that as 
individuals are minus legs, arms, fingers, hands, ears, eyes, etc., so they can 
be and are destitute of many of the mental faculties necessary to an under- 
standing and appreciation of the main facts and principles on which civilized 
society exists. Such individuals cannot live at large except as a constant 
menace. They should therefore, upon committing crime, be permanently with- 
drawn from society. 

2 Of course, if arrested development occurs in any vital part, death en- 
sues. One of the most common cases of infant mortality is the failure of 
the heart to complete its development and therefore to properly circulate 
the blood, giving rise to the disease known as " blue baby," from the blue or 
nonaerated blood. 



1.6 



DoMKsru'A ri:i) animals \\n ri.wrs 



Doubling of parts. One of the most common ot" abnormalities 
is the increase ot numbers of ixirts, especialK' bv cUniblin,>;'. An 
extra linger or t(K" is by no means rare, and double thumbs or 
even double hands are not unknown (see V\g;. 20). 

The horse, having de\eloped from a fi\e-toed ancestor, has 
frequently an extra toe or two, as does the cow. though less 
commonly. Certain strains of sheep have four horns instead 




KiG. 20. Symmetry within the variable part. Here it would seem that an attempt 

has been made to repeat the hand, or rather that an attempt at repetition of the 

thumb has resulted in a doubling of the hand. — After Rateson 

of twti. and occasionall)' the deer shows a cluster of horns instead 
of the nt)rmal growth. 

Insects frequently double a leg or a wing, and turtles and 
snakes occasionally double the head ; ^ indeed, there is almost 
no organ or part of the body that n^iv not in rare instances 
be doubled- (see Fig. 21). 

Doubling among plants is exceedinglv common, being noth- 
ing more or less than branching. Double clover heads are 
found eveiTwhere, double timothy heads rarelv, and double 
wheat still more rarelv. Double ears of corn, or, mt>re projx'rlv. 
"fingered" ears, are frequenth' found, as are little ears on the 
end of the tassel (see l'"ig. 19). 



^ " Principles of Hreeding," pp. 44, 64, 67. 

- The so-called double-headed people of the shows have been in every case 
really twins united by fleshy growth, an abnormality that occasionally happens. 





Fig. 21. Upper and lower surfaces of double-headed turtle compared with the 

usual specimens two to three days old. Note effect on shell plates both above 

and beneath. In this specimen the movements of the legs on opposite sides 

were not well coordinated. — After Bateson 



137 



13^^ 



DOMKSrUA IKI) AXIMAI.S AM) I'l.ANlS 



The stool ing," of i;rain is a case of branching at the base and 
is a real doubling, as are the four-, five-, or six-leaved clovers. 
The whole matter of doubling is, of course, 
the result of an extra cell di\ision at the 
l^roper point, — an abnormality tliat is some- 
times hereditar\- Ixit oftener not, though a 
strong tendenc)' exists for an\' i:)h\-siological 
habit proceeding 
from internal 




Fig. 22. A hand- 
shaped corncob 
showing a tendency 
to branching of the 
ear, not at all un- 
common 



causes to become 
hereditary. 

Fusingof parts. 
Ouite the oppo- 
site of doubling is 
the fusing or joining of two parts 
into one. Thus the tw<^ kidneys may 
be joined at one end, making the 
horseshoe kidne}-. A pair of horns 
may be compounded into one. Two 
fingers of the human hand or the 
two toes of the pig ^ may be united 
into one. 

When unit characters get mis- 
placed. Perhaps the most remarkable 
fact of development and differentia- 
tion is seen when a normal struc- 
ture develops in an abnormal place. 

Thus occasionally a tooth will develop roebuck are united into a single 

^1 f r .1 ii T ,1 beam for a considerable distance, 

m the roof of the mouth, as if the ^^^ ^f^envards they separate. - 

germ of it had in some wa^■ got After Uatcson 

misplaced but was able to grow in 

its new place, like a tree that is transplanted. Sometimes the 
eye of an insect will develop not as an eye but as an antenna. 

1 These are the so-called solid- or mule-hoofed hogs. This abnormality- 
arises frequently and may be readily propagated, as it happens to be fairly 
hereditary. See " Principles of Breeding," pp. 55, 66. 




Fic.. 23. Compounding of paired 
organs : the two horns of this 



WHEN DEVELOPMENT GOES WRONCx 



139 



Milk secretion is the function of glands that are normally 
confined to special parts of the body. It is not unknown, how- 
ever, that the tissues of various parts of the body, especially in 




Fig. 24. Abnormal horny growth on the head of a deer. Specimen in 
State Museum, Augusta, Maine. Courtesy of the superintendent 

the region of the lymphatics, may alter their function and 
secrete real milk. 

This development of a part out of place is not common, but 
it occurs frequently enough to show the fact that each part of 
the body is a kind of definite unit quite independent of other 
parts, all of which casts important light upon the semi-independ- 
ent nature of unit characters. 



I40 noMKsi'KA ri:n ammais and plants 

Abnormal growths. Not onlv do unit ohaniotors cxvasionallv 
got mixed up and jumbled tOi;ether in ijuiie ivniai kal^le tashion. 
but in rare eases gixnvths iveur which, it not formless, at least 
are in no sense of the term normal body i^rowths. Often these 
are distoited imitations of the real pait. as on the deer's head 
shown in l-'ii;. J4 ; but ol'ten. if not eommonh'. thev are mer- 
growths of some part oi the bod\ . induced possibh In irritation 
or perhaps by poisons, as in ^alls. in the characteristic tubercle 
of the disease known as tuberculosis, anil in its namesake, the 
tubercle of the Ici^umes. 

Oi this geneml character. [00, is the tumor, that perxcrse 
overi;Towth due to disinders not undcrstoiul. but which, from the 
fact that they " have no typical termination." are not onlv 
extremelv troublesome but often dangerous to lite. 

With this glimjise at the abnormal we are prepared to resume 
the normal and to discuss brieth how unit characters beha\e in 
transmission. 

Summary, ncvokipniont niav i;o wrong in sovor.il wnvs. First, some 
part nu\y not devek"»p at aU. or. on tho other hand, it niav t.ir exceed its 
normal size or function. A part niav even be doubled, two parts niav fuse 
into one. or normal ehanicters may get misplaced. The whole organism mav 
exceed the normal size or it may stop short ot" the usual, and in rare eases 
abnormal growths mav occur in almost anv part ot" the bodv. 

Exercise. M.ike collections of plants or parts of plants, including fruits 
and tiowers. in which development has been in some wav unusual. Such a 
collection is not representative of life processes, but it does show what mav 
possibly happen when development goes wrong, and it fixes the conception 
of unit characters. 

Learn by observation and inquirv all that vou can about unusual animals 
in the neighborhood, either in regiud to color markings or abnormal parts, 
getting photographs and accurate descriptions wherever possible. Let a col- 
lection of such specimens and photographs accumulate in the school for 
future studies in abnormal behavior durimr dil^erentiation. 



CHAi'ii.K xr 

HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE IN TRANSMISSION 

Characters lend lo combine in definilc mathemalical pnjportions • Characters 
that do not blend • Mendel's law of hybrids • Dominant and recessive 
characters • J 'ure races may spring from crossing • Very few individuals 
pure • A second method of improvement • Improvement by hybridization 
complicated • iMulalioii and mutants • Origin of new and improved strains 

The iii.iiiiici" .iiifl machinery of transmission arc exceedingly 
simple, but the mystery is, how so many and such different unit 
characters are contained in so small a bit of living matter, for 
that is all lliat passes over from parent to offsprinj^. Many 
inj^enious theories have been offered in explanation, but the 
mystery itself has never yet been solved. We do know much, 
however, of what in the enrl really happens, and in that, after 
all, the chief practical interest lies. 

Characters tend to combine in definite mathematical propor- 
tions. In the .case of the white and yellow corn, for example, 
if a yellow silk is fertilized by a white pollen f<rain, the resulting 
kernel will be a " half blood " ; that i.s, one half its color tenden- 
cies will be yellow and one half white. If such a kernel now be 
planted where its progeny will again be fertilized by white pollen, 
the result will be a three-fourths white and one-fourth yellow 
generation. If the same be done again, the next generation 
will have seven eighths of the wh\h: " blood " with only one 
eighth remaining of the yellow, and so on indefinitely in regularly 
increasing and decreasing proportions. Of course the opposite 
result, but on the .same plan, would have followed if the half 
blood had been bred successively with yellow rather than with 
white varieties. 

Having found the principle, we can readily calculate the 
" blood " of the progeny of any known mixture. lujr example, 

141 



14-^ 



DOMES TR-ATKn ANIMALS AND I'LANTS 



tlic blood of a throe-fourths white biwl witli a scvcn-cighths white 

3 _|_ 1 

would be ^^^ -, or \ ;! white with the remaining ^\, yellow, — 

this nuieh for single kernels or for a whole generation of known 
mixed breeding, 

Supix)se now that white and vellow corn be planted together 
in the same field in ecjual jM-oportions. What will be the nature 
of the erop ? The answer to this tiuestion eovers one of the most 
important p^iints in plant or animal improvement, for there is 
no essential difference in principle between the two, and what 
applies to one applies equally to the other, so far as principles 
are concerned. 

In such a held planted equallv with white and yellow corn 
the first question is, Will all the kernels be mixed ? Manifestly 
not. Under the law of chance * a \ellow silk, for example, will 
have equal oi:)portunities of being fertilized by a yellow or by a 
white pollen grain ; that is to say, the ovule stands equal chances 
of developing as a pure or as a mixed kernel, and the same may 
be said of anv kernel in the held, provided of course that the 
nimiber of silks and of pollen grains are equal, as was specified 
in the problem. 

When the season is over, the whole population of corn ker- 
nels of the field will then be as follows : on the stalks arising 
from yellow kernels J- will be pure yellow and \ will be mixed, 
yellow and white ; on the stalks arising from white kernels ^ 
will be pure white and }t will be mixed, yellow and white. 

Now, as the corn was planted half and half, each kind of 
stalk represents half the crop. So we liave for the field as 
a whole, \ pure yellow ; ^ mixed, white on \ellow ; ', pure 
white ; \ mixed, yellow on white. 

But as white |X)llen on vellow silk gives the same mixture as 
yellow pollen on white silk, we ha\e our population reduced to 
the following : \ pure vellow. Jf mixed, \ pure white, from which 

1 " Principles of Hieeding," pp. 365, 504. 



now CHARACrKRS BEHAVE 



143 



we deduce that with reference to a single character the total 
offspring resulting from mixed breeding between two races, in 
equal numbers where no selection is involved, will be in the 
proportion of \ pure of one variety, I mixed, and \ pure of the 
other. 'Jliis is in the proportion of 25 ])er cent, 50 per cent, 
and 25 per cent (;f the total jjopulation, or of i, 2, i. If the 
proportion between yellow and white had been as 2 to i instead 
of even, then the proportion of the pure and mixed kernels 
would have been different but still definite and easily computed. 

Let us now see what would happen if this crop of pure white, 
pure yellow, and mixed should be planted together again, eac/i 
sort in its tnte proportion ; that is, just as would happen in 
nature, supposing all forms to be equally vigorous and equally 
able to withstand natural selection. We will tabulate this because 
it gets rapidly complicated. In the table let the different combi- 
nations planted be represented by the column headings across 
the top, and the different kinds of pollen produced be repre- 
sented by the headings down the side. 

Remembering that every kind of pollen will fall on every 
kind of silk, and in definite proportions, the results are as follows, 
the body of the table repre- 
senting the various kinds 
of progeny and the footing 
at the bottom showing the 
final and total population. 

In this table the expo- 
nents represent the num- 

ber of infusions of pure blood ; that is, y pollen on j silk gives 
j2 kernels, or two infusions of y, as compared to the y of yw, 
which represents the first mixture of yellow and white, and so 
on for other combinations. 

Now these facts are significant : first, we have all the combi- 
nations possible between y and zv as the result of two admixtures ; 
second, with all this admixture for two generations we still have 
some white (j'"*) and some yellow {zv^) remaining as pure as if 







y 


zyw 


w"- 


^2 . . 


y' 


2yhv 


yhv^ 


2 yw 


2 y^7v 


^fw-^ 


2 J'7C»^ 


W2 . . 


y'^itfl 


2 yw^ 


ItA 



Total, J)/* -|- iy^w + byhv^ -H ^yw^ -f- itA 



144 lH)MKSri(.'A ri.D AMMAIS AND IMANIS 

no mixture had taken place in the tiekl ; tliiril, the eoetlieients 
expressing;' propiMlion as well as the exponents expressing 
infusions of blood stand in the exact form of the binomial 
theorem, that is. we have here reproduced the binomial {y + :c)*. 
Knowiui; this general theorem, the student can readilv write 
the color or blood combination for an\- number oi infusions 
with any degree of mixed breeding. 

Another significant fact must be noted. nameK . that although 
this formula becomes rapidh- complicated with successive genera- 
tions,^ there are always a few individuals remaining just as 
pure as if no mixed breeding had been done, all of which means 
that in free and unrestricted breeding all possible combinations 
will take place. In systematic improvement it is the business 
of the breeder to allow only such blood combinations to be made 
as will result in desirable combinations and fa\i>rable results, 
preventing all inhers. 

Characters that do not blend. When di\erse characters are 
thus brought together, two \erv different results ma\ follow. 
They may blend into a single new character, in wiiich case 
our figures show the proportioNs xcithin tJit blood, or thev may 
remain distinct as two independent characters within the same 
individual. Stature and size as well as man\- colors blend freely, 
but not all characters behave in that simple wav. Vox example, 
white and black blend freely in the human race, and the off- 
spring of white and negro are mulattoes of varit>us sliades, 
according to the respective infusions ; but colors do not blend 
in pigs, which are either black, white, or spotted, never roan 
or mulatto. Some colors blend in horses (roan), some do not. 
Some brex'ds of cattle have blended colors (Shorthorns) ; in 
others the colors remain distinct (Molstein-Friesian). 

And so with characters generally. Many will blend and many 
others will not. When they will not blend, then the appearance 
is still less a gtiide to the real hereditarv qualities, and under 
these circumstances it is little or no index to what will happen 

' " rrinciples of Hreeding," p. 506. 



HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE 145 

when the mixture is bred. This fact was long a great stum- 
blingblock to breeders, involving the business of improvement 
in unfortunate and, as we now know, unnecessary mystery. 

Mendel's law of hybrids.^ This so-called Mendel's law, 
named for its first discoverer (I say first, f(jr it was lost till 
rediscovered), attempts to predict what will be the real char- 
acter of the offspring of mixed or hybrid parents when the 
characters of the mixture will not blend. 

What really happens in such a case is this : The hybrid 
offspring, instead of possessing a new character which is a 
kind of mean or blend between the different characters of the 
two parents, will contain them botJi ; and when these hybrids 
are bred together, their offspring will be not of one but of 
tJiree distinct kinds, namely, a group that is like the one origi- 
nal and pure parent, another group that is like the other 
original and pure parent, and a larger group that is hybrid 
like its immediate parents. 

For example, let x and y represent any two nonblending 
characters in separate individuals. What will happen when 
they are bred together, and when their hybrid offspring are 
afterwards bred among themselves .-' 

The problem stands thus : One parent produces both x and y 
characters. The other parent also produces both x and y char- 
acters. What are the combinations that will take place .-' Mani- 
festly these combinations will follow the law of chance. In one 
case out of four the two x's will unite, making pure ,r's {x^) ; 
in one case out of four also the two j's will unite, making pure 
jj/'s (j2) ; and in the two other cases the x and the j' will unite, 
making again xy offspring in numbers equal to both the others ; 
that is, the total result of breeding together a lot of hybrid indi- 
viduals with mixed characters x and y will be in the proportion 

1 Mendel, an Austrian monk, carried on experiments in his garden that 
brought out the principle here stated, but all of which was lost and lay un- 
known for many years. For a more extended account, see " Principles of 
Breeding," p. 513. 



140 DOMKSTlCATEl) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

of x^ + 2 .ly +j'^, in which x"^ and j'^ arc pure as to this character, 
though descended from mixed parents on bolli sides. 

Now the x'^ part of this offspring, having no y characters, will 
continue to breed jjure x as well as if no j' were involved in the 
make-up of its ancestiy, and likewise for the j'^. 

The 2 xf part of this generation is hybrid like the parents, 
and, when bred together, will reproduce again the same general 
character of offspring as their hybrid parents of the last genera- 
tion, namely, .i-^ + 2 xy +y'^ ; that is to say, when hybrids of 
nonblending characters are bred together they will produce three 
kinds of offspring. One will be like the one pure parent ; another 
will be like the other pure parent, and the third group, consti- 
tuting one half the total numbers, will remain hybrid. The two 
others will breed pure, but the hybrid will not. 

Dominant and recessive characters. In truth, it is seldom in 
practice that all these three classes stand clearly out. Some char- 
acters are dominant over others ; that is, more easily detected, 
such as strong colors over weak, huge size over small, etc. 

Suppose now that we take such a case, representing the 
dominant or easily detected character by the letter D, and the 
recessive, as it is called, or the obscure character by the letter ;-. 
The result of breeding Dr hybrids with themselves will then 

Now what will this kind of a population look like ? The 17^, 
being pure, will of course be easily seen. The same is true of 
the r^, though less distinct, because the recessive characters are 
less conspicuous ; that is, 25 per cent of the population is clearly 
/?2 and another 25 per cent is as certainly r^. \^\\t what about 
the remaining 50 per cent .? 

Clearly this 50 per cent {Dr) will look like pure D, because 
the r character, though actually present, will not be noticed, 
being recessive. 

Accordingly the whole population, instead of looking like 
2$ D^ + ^oDr+ 25;-^, as it really is, will appear like 75 1^ + 
25 r^, the eye being unable to distinguish between the 25/) and 



HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE 



147 



the 50 /7r; that is to say, where one character is dominant and 
the other recessive, it is simply impossible to separate the pure 
dominant from the mixed dominant and recessive by appear- 
ances merely. It can only be done by a resort to the breeding 
test, when the really pure Z^^'s will produce only D's, while the 
real Drs, will produce back again the characteristic V^ -\- 2 Dr 
+ r^ with its 25 per cent of pure r's. As has been already 







Fig. 25. Showing albino sire and black dam with their offspring, all black. 
Below, a pair of the hybrid offspring and their litter (see text). From photo- 
graphs furnished by W. E. Castle, Harvard University 

explained, no such difficulty exists with regard to the pure reces- 
sive character, because from the first those that look like re- 
cessive are recessive. For this reason breeders are always glad 
when a desired character proves to be recessive, because it can 
be so much more easily separated from its associated character 
than can a dominant. 

This behavior of unit characters in hybrids is beautifully illus- 
trated by the work of Professor Castle with guinea pigs, as 



14S DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

shown in Fig. 2^. Here we !ia\e a Inbrid offspring from an 
albino sire and a blaek dam. The offspring are all black, so 
black is dominant over white. Their offspring are, however, of 
two kinds, both black and white, but in the proportion of 3 to i . 
Of this group of four, therefore, only one, the white, can with 
certainty be counted upon to breed true. Some of the blacks 
will also breed true, but only the breeding test will determine 
which they are. 

This whole matter is up in full force in all attemj^ts at im- 
provement by crossing, whether among plants or animals, which 
is the reason why animal breeders especially axoid this form of 
breeding, though it is a favorite method in the improvement of 
plants, which can be produced in large numbers.^ 

When the parents differ in two unit characters, the case is 
mt)re complicated, but the principle remains the same, namely, 
that all possible combinations will occur and a perfectly definite 
number of each may be expected. Again, Professor Castle's work 
with guinea pigs illustrates the point especially well. 

In Fig. 26 are shown a dark-colored smooth-haired and an 
albino rough-haired parent. Their offspring were a// dark and 
rough as shown in the middle figure, but some of their progeny 
were smooth and white as shown in the lower figure, while others 
were like each of the original parents, and still others like the 
first hybrid ; that is, all possible combinations had been made. 
In this case the Mendelian expectation is 3 : 3 : 9 : i. 

Pure races may spring from crossing. The facts just pre- 
sented show that /or c/ia/-actrrs that blaid, the hybrid will breed 
]Dure as a single new race, but that for characters that do not 
blend, the individuals may or may not be pure and may or may 
not breed true. 

All the facts go to show that whether the offspring of hvbrid 
parents consist of three groups as when only one character is 
involved, or whether they consist of man\' groups as when two or 

1 The student of breeding should understand, however, that crossing is 
equally effective with animals and plants, except that the very large numbers 
involved makes it too expensive for most individual animal breeders. 



HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE 



149 



more characters are involved the groups may, by patience, be 
separated and new races estabhshed that will breed pure. The 
greatest difficulty arises in separating for the dominant char- 
acters, but the test is in the descendants. 

It will be noted too, in this connection, that in these new 
races an absolutely new association of characters is often brought 







Fig. 26. A dark smooth parent and an albino rough parent. Below is their dark 
rough offspring, and at the bottom one of the types that appeared in the grand- 
children (see text), a new type associating the short coat and the white color. 
— After Castle, 1905, Ptiblication 2j, Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C. 

about as when the white color and the smooth coat have been 
brought together from two different sources. In this way new 
races that will breed true may be got out of a mixture whether 
the characters blend or not. 

Very few individuals pure. What has just been said has 
reference to characters and not to individuals. As will be 
seen below, it is a difficult task to find an individual that is 



150 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

pure with reference to all his characters after they have once 
become entangled with others. 

A second method of improvement. It is very clear that here 
we possess a means of improvement ([uite different from that of 
simple selection, and, moreover, it is one that will somewhat 
suddenly give rise to new races. The chief difficulty is to find 
and identify the comparatively few individuals that are pure 
with reference to all essential characters, and this is a reason 
for reducing the characters in breeding to the fewest possible. 

As to nonessential characters the new race may remain 
hybrid for all the breeder cares. For example, if he is trying to 
combine amount and quality of milk, he will get along faster if 
he pays no attention to the color of the cows, and selects only 
the few that have the character he is after, leaving the color, for 
the present at least, to behave as a hybrid, to be managed later 
after the high milkers have been isolated. 

Improvement by hybridization complicated. When but one 
nonblending character is involved, a full 50 per cent of the 
offspring of hybrid parents is pure as to that character, it being 
equally proportioned between the two parents. 

If, however, another character be involved, then only a small 
proportion of the offspring that are pure as to the first char- 
acter are pure also as to the second character, and so on for 
additional characters. 

If all the desired characters are recessive, then all that is 
required is to wait until the rare individual appears that has these 
characters and no others ; but if, as in most cases, some of the 
characters sought to be retained are dominant, the separation will 
be a tedious operation. 

Mutation and mutants. Accidental crossing in nature is 
constantly producing new strains, most of which go down in the 
struggle for existence, but some of which are sufficiently vigor- 
ous and prolific to persist. They are seldom equally vigorous or 
equally prolific with the parent strains, else they would long ago 
have developed into good species. These strains can of course 



HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE 151 

be seized upon when found, and it will be discovered, as we 
should expect, that a few of them will breed true, but that most 
of them will break up, like other hybrids, into a variety of forms. 

Apparently quite independent of this, however, new forms 
occasionally arise by methods that do not seem to involve cross- 
ing. For example, polled or hornless cattle occasionally arise 
spontaneously, as we say ; that is, without crossing or other 
known cause. Albino strains arise frequently in nearly all races. 
Thus we have white cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, cats, pigs ; and, 
among wild animals, deer, bears, wolves, rabbits, mice, and rats, 
most of which are known to breed pure. 

In a few cases, notably with sheep, the albino strain has 
been the favorite for obvious reasons, and the older stock, the 
brown or so-called black sheep, is well-nigh lost. With pigs 
the preference is about evenly divided between the black and 
the white. ^ 

Among plants mutation is even more common or else more 
noticeable than among animals, and much of it arises from what 
is technically known as bud variation. Thus a peach tree may 
bear peaches in the usual way for a number of years, when 
suddenly one or two limbs or possibly the entire tree may 
bear a crop of nectarines for a year or so, and then resume 
the bearing of peaches. 

The moss rose is a mutant of the common wild rose, which 
is the parent of all cultivated varieties. The strangest thing 
about bud variation is that the mutants thus arising often breed 
true, as do the moss rose and the nectarine. 

The weeping habit among the willow, birch, beech, and other 
species of trees ; the appearance of smooth among thorny or 
hairy strains, like the smooth gooseberry ; and the reverse of 
this, namely, the sudden appearance of hairy or fuzzy strains 
among the smooth, — all these are now known as mutants. 

1 Certain red strains of swine have been built up mostly by selection, though 
possibly to some extent by mutation, the only red foundation being the reddish- 
tan tinge on the end of the hair of the wild boar. 



152 



DOMKSTRATEI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



Such radical departures from type were formerly recognized 
and popularly designated as " sports," as if nature in some 
sudden antic disposition, at pla\' in her workshop, were disre- 
garding all ordinary laws of procedure. 

The modern name of mutants is better, and while these sud- 
den departures are often independent of crossing, it is signifi- 
cant that the)- frequently breed true, showing that the changes 
involved are sufficiently profound to affect the germ plasm. 

The selection and isolation of desirable mutants, therefore, 
constitutes a third method of improvement of animals and j^lants, 
the one most practiced by Luther lUu-bank. 

Origin of new and improved strains. 1 hrce metiiods of im- 
provement are therefore open to the breeder : ( i ) selection in 
imitation of nature ; (2) crossing, with the understanding that 
new strains may also be shaped up by selection ; (3) mutation, 
the fortunate mutants being seized upon and made the most of 
as a free gift of nature to the breeder's hand. 

Doubtless all these means of changes in species are in opera- 
tion everywhere in nature. Darwin expounded the hrst and 
De Vries the last, and a multitude of evolutionaiy literature 
exists. The student who is desirous of pursuing the general 
question of origin of species m nature will find the subject 
briefly sketched in Chapters X\TI-XXI of I'art II, with some 
standard references. 

Summary. When distinct races are crossed hybrids are produced be- 
tween all the characters involved. Some of these characters will blend, 
and the result will be a new combination which will thereafter breed true 
as rei:;iirds all such blended characlers. 

But other characters will not blend, remaining distinct, in which case the 
gametes will continue to produce not one new and blended character, but 
both old characters in their original purity. Under the law of chance one 
fourth of the offspring would possess the character of the one parent in its 
purity, one fourth that of the other, and half would remain hybrid. 

Inasmuch as some characters are naturally dominant and others recessive, 
the recessive individuals can be detected only where the recessive stands 



HOW CHARACTERS 15KHAVK 



153 



alone, the 50 per cent hybrids containing both dominant and recessive 
being indistinguishable from the pure dominants. 

This applies to single characters and not to entire individuals, which 
rarely are all dominant or all recessive. 

Exercise. Make some crosses in corn and then plant the crossbred seed 
and cross again with a third different color of distinct variety, as white, 
yellow, and sweet, or white, yellow, and red. 

References. 1. " Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection." 
Darwin. 

2. " Origin of Species by Mutation." De Vries. 

3. " Mendel's Principles of Heredity." Bateson. 

4. " Principles of Breeding " (chap, xiv, sec. xii). Davenport. 



CHAl'TKR XTT 

HOW THE OFFSPRING COMPARES WITH THE PARENT, OR 
DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION 

The complex nature of heredity • The offspring not like the parent ■ 
Mediocrity the common lot, whatever the parentage ; regression • Some 
offspring better and some worse than their parents • The exceptional par- 
ent and his offspring • Progression • The exceptional offspring and his 
parent • Reversion • Degeneracy 

Though the general process of improvement by selection is 
simple enough, certain additional facts and principles are in- 
volved with which the breeder needs to be acquainted in order 
to make the selection to the best advantage. 

The complex nature of heredity. The most disconcerting 
principle in all improvement operations lies back of the obvious 
fact that the offspring is not like the parent. Having, as he 
nearly always does, two parents, he could not of course be like 
them both. The fact is, however, that for the most part he is 
not like either one of them, nor yet is he like the two combined. 
The most that can be said is that the offspring jrsonblcs his 
parents, and that all his characters are to be found somewhere 
in his parentage. 

This all means that transmission is more a matter of family 
or general ancestral influence than it is of the two particular 
individuals that happen to be the immediate parents. 

It has already been stated that every individual, whatever his 
personalitv, transmits all the characters of the race or family 
to which he belongs, and no others. Some of these characters 
may not be evident in his own make-up, but if the\' are in tlie 
blood of the family, they will be transmitted. 

All this is not saying that all characters will be transmitted 
with the same intensity nor with the same probability of being 

154 



DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION 155 

evident in the offspring. Indeed, it is well known that all char- 
acters are not transmitted with equal intensity, but that rather, 
in general, the intensity of transmission is somewhere in pro- 
portion to the combined intensities of the two parents. This, of 
course, produces results quite different from either parent taken 
singly, and this, too, is tme in general only, and not in every 
individual instance. The visible characters of one parent, there- 
fore, or even of both, are not an absolute index of what will 
appear in the offspring any more than they are an absolute index 
of their real make-up. Indeed, there is no guide to what will 
happen in individual cases, though enough studies have been 
made to show about what does happen in the long run ; that is, 
how offspring in general compare with the parentage. 

The best studies that have ever been made in this field were 
those of Galton ^ upon the stature of English people. I repro- 
duce his table here, for it shows, as nothing else can, the rela- 
tion between offspring in general and their parentage, though it 
may be remarked that later and similar studies confirm the prin- 
ciple as to other characters and in other races, as with milk 
production in cattle (see " Principles of Breeding," p. 498^). 

In this table the heights of 928 adult offspring are classified 
and compared with the stature of their parents. The heights 
of the offspring (adult children) are listed at the top in columns 
running from 62.2 inches and below to 73.2 inches and above, 
with intervals of one inch. The heights of the midparents are 
listed on the left in groups also an inch apart, running from 
64.5 inches and below to 72.5 inches and above. 

By midparental height is meant one half the combined height 
of father and mother after increasing the mother s height by 
one eighth (12.5 per cent), because Galton found that in general 
women are one eighth shorter than men, or rather that their 
height must be multiplied by 1.08 to convert them into " male 
equivalents." In this table all female statures have been so 

1 An English scientist, cousin of Darwin, and author of "Natural Inherit- 
ance," which see, together with " Principles of Breeding," pp. 479-482. 



156 DOMKSriCATF.D ANIMALS AND PLAN I'S 







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DESCENT WITH MODI KICA'I'ION 157 

treated, thus cliniinaliii;^ the matter oi sex, and all the "chil- 
dren," ^ whether male or female, arc thus considered as males. 
The rest of the table is self-explanatory. The heights of mid- 
parents are classified to half inches and recorded in the column 
at the left. The height of each adult " child " is recorded in its 
proper column and in a row opposite the height of his mid- 
parent, after which totals are added both ways. 

Thus we see that of the whole 928 people whose stature was 
taken, 120 were 68.3 inches high (see column 9). (Jf these, 
I was born from 72.5-inch parents ; 3 were born from 71,5-inch 
|)arents ; 12 were born from 70.5-inch parents, and so on from 
the shorter j)arentage. In all there were 928 children and 205 
pairs of parents, — of course duplicated in the case of brothers. 

We are now ready to look a little further into the meaning of 
this table. 

The offspring not like the parent. The very first fact that 
attracts our attention in this table is that the offspring are not 
much like their immediate parents, but that all sorts of parents 
(short, medium, or tall) produce all sorts of children (short, 
medium, or tall), and that the correspondence in height be- 
tween specific parents and their particular offspring is not very 
close. In other words, like offspring may be produced by very 
dissimilar parents (sec any column of the table) ; and, corre- 
spondingly, like parents, or even the same parents, in succes- 
sive generations, may produce very dissimilar offspring (see any 
row in the table, as, for example, the very variable offspring of 
68,5-inch midparents). This important fact lies at the basis of 
all breeding, as it does of most sociological questions, involving 
parentage. 

Mediocrity the common lot, whatever the parentage ; re- 
gression. Looked at closely, mediocrity seems to be the com- 
mon lot. The average height of the people in this table is 

. 1 The student must remember that in this case the word " children " is used 
to mean simply offspring in general. These children were fully grown, and 
their heights are strictly comparable with those of their parents. 



158 DOMESTKATK!) ANIMALS AM) PLANTS 

about 68.6 inches for parents and 68. o inches for children 
(see columns 17 and 16). The most significant fact about this 
table is its tendency to cluster about these average values, which 
are nearest represented by column 9 and row ^. Where these 
two lines cross is the densest part of the table, — around the 
number 34. Note, too, how the arrays (columns or rows of 
figures) resemble the frequency distribution with which we 
became familiar in the chapter on Type and Variability. Each 
of these arrays has the characteristic shape, — large in the 
middle, dwindling at both ends. Moi'eover, this large middle 
is in (j// cases, whatex'cr the parentage, not far frovi the middle 
point of this tcibh\ though the tai:)le is somewhat skewed by 
the difference in the parental heights. To note more particu- 
larly, consider the offspring of about the average parent (68.5 
inches, row g). Though these parents were all of an even 
height, their offspring were distributed from below 62.2 inches 
to 73.2, but the largest number (48) is very near to the average 
of the race. 

Again, note the offspring of the 65.5-inch parents, which are 
below the ax'crage height of parents. Here the range in the off- 
spring is from below 62,2 inches, as before, but stops at 72.2, 
with the highest numbers (11) at 66.2 and 67.2, both taller 
than their parents. Indeed, of this whole population of 66 
children of the 65.5-inch parents, all but 22, or exactly two 
thirds, are better than their parents. 

Still again, note the offspring of the 71.5-inch parents, which 
are extremely tall. Here the range is from 65.2 inches to above 
73.2, or over an inch shoj-ter than their parents. Again, of the 
43 children of these extremely tall parents, 30, or nearly three 
fourths, are shorter than their parents. Again, of the 43 chil- 
dren of these extremely tall parents, 30, or nearly three fourths, 
are shorter tJian their parents. 

The principle is, that whatever the parents, — short, medium, 
or tall, — the offspring tend strongly toward the mean of the 
race. This principle of tendency toward mediocrity is known 



DESCENT WITH MODIFlCA'l'lON 



159 



as regression or the pull of the ancestry. The reason of it is 
that some of these short parents are children of tall people, and 
in these cases the height is helped out by the stature of the 
grandparent. Also, some of the extremely tall parents were 
themselves children of short grandparents, all of which lessens 
greatly their powers of transmitting as much stature as they 
themselves possess. 

Some offspring better and some worse than their parents. 
A careful study of this table shows that whatever the parent, 
whether mediocre, inferior, or exceptional, the offspring will 
take the form of a distribution extending both ways from a 
mean or mode, said mean or mode being not far from that of 
the parent. If the parent is above the average of the race, the 
majority of the offspring will be below the parent ; if, however, 
the parent is below the average, then the majority of the off- 
spring will be better than their parents. 

The exceptional parent and his offspring. There is a foolish 
notion that preachers' sons are especially likely to go wild. Let 
us analyze this problem in the light of this table. In the first 
place, admitting the parent to be exceptional, what are the 
chances of the offspring being also exceptional ? This is an 
important question, — indeed, one of the most important in 
all studies in heredity. 

Substituting general excellence in place of stature for the 
moment, let us refer to the table. We see at once that an excep- 
tional parent, or even an exceptional midparent, which means 
two exceptional parents, is by no means certain of exceptional 
offspring, unless, indeed, the exceptional quality is of many 
generations standing. Take the case of the 70. 5 -inch parents, 
— two inches above the average. Of their entire offspring (68), 
I was almost a dwarf, 5 i were shorter than their parents, and 
7 were distinctly below the average of the race. This is one 
side of the question and accounts for the physiological fact that 
presidents, preachers, and other notable men are bound to pro- 
duce some very ordinary people, all of which helps us to realize 



l6o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

that mediocrity is the most common and the most Ukely lot of 
man, and that regression is ahvays at work. 

Progression. Now let us look at the other side of the ques- 
tion and see what is to be found after having disposed of this 
relatively large number of mediocre individuals, and let us see 
if, after all, the exceptional parent has not something to his 
advantage in the matter of offspring. 

Note again that the other end of this array of the offspring 
of the 70.5-inch parents shows 17 individuals, or exactly one 
fourth, better tJiaii their exceptionally good parents. Not only 
is this true, but the higher we get among the exceptional parents, 
— 71.5, 72.5, etc., — the more is this true and the larger is the 
proportion of exceptional offspring. This is progression, and, as 
a principle, it is just as true and just as much to be counted on 
as are regression and mediocrity. 

This principle of progression is the one that insures the 
results from natural selection and the survival of the fittest in 
nature, just as it is the one that insures that selection anywhere 
zvill befolloived by offspring, some portioji of zvhieh, not all, zvill 
be a distinct improvement over even their exceptional parents. 
It is on this principle that we rely for most of our improvement 
of domesticated animals and plants, and as it is the most impor- 
tant principle in evolution, the student is urged to remember it. 

The promptness and rapidity with which improvement follows 
selection under this principle of progression is best shown by 
the opposite table exhibiting the results of Dr. Hopkins's ex- 
periments in altering the oil content of the grain of corn. 

In this experiment ears of the highest and others of the 
lowest oil content obtainable were planted in successive years. 
The table shows the results in the crop both as to distribution 
and average for each of nine years, and is the best exhibition 
known to the author of the principle of progression and the 
results of selection. 

In the study of this table it will be noticed that the oil content 
of the original seed was 4.70 per cent, but that the strain 



DESCENT WrrH MODIFICATION 



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1 62 DOMKSTICA TKl) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

selected for high oil produced in the ninth year a crop as high 
as 7.29 per cent oil and one as low as 2.58 per cent. Note, 
also, the rapid rate at which the distributions separate from 
each other, — so rapid, indeed, that in the fourth crop (1900) they 
no longer overlap but entirely part company ; that is, the lowest 
of the high oil is higher than the highest of the low oil.^ 

If the offspring of the exceptional parent is in many cases so 
decidedly exceptional, how did the tradition start about the 
mediocre sons of great men ? Naturally enough. Some of these 
sons are truly mediocre, even inferior, as we have seen, and in 
this, as in other matters, a few cases make a great impression, 
provided they are sufficiently striking. Every preacher's son that 
goes wrong attracts special attention, — even more attention than 
does the long line of divines like the Edwardses or the Adamses, 
in which greatness almost invariably descended from father to 
son for many generations. This impression is akin to that 
other popular fallacy that people choose opposites in matrimony ; 
that is, that tall people prefer short mates ; dark-haired prefer 
light ; phlegmatic prefer vivacious, etc. Now the facts are, so 
far as they have been studied, that people prefer and choose 
their like to a surprisingly large degree. For example, the 
correlation or ratio of correspondence between husbands and 
wives amounts to 0.28 in stature and about the same in eye 
and hair color, whereas if they tended to choose opposites, 
it would be negative, and if they were indifferent, it would be 
zero. The fact is, that if we see one tall woman with a little 
husband, or the reverse, the grotesqueness of it all strikes our 
attention and we remark about it, reminding ourselves again of 
the "law of dissimilars" ; whereas we fail to notice the large 
number of properly assorted people that pass and repass, and 
thus overlook the real law that men and women in general mate 
by similarities and get along best when they do so. These few 
illustrations will show the need of accurate and somewhat exten- 
sive observation before hastening to generalization, 

1 For a fuller discussion, see " I'rinciples of Hreeding," pp. 492-499. 



DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION 163 

The exceptional offspring and his parent. A glance at the table 
on page 156 will show another great principle in transmission, 
namely, that a given class of offspring may be produced in vari- 
ous ways. For example, the heights of offspring as recorded in 
column 1 3 are clearly exceptional. These people are over six feet 
tall, but they were produced by all sorts of parents from 72.5 inches 
doivn to 6s-5- While the parents were thus distributed, yet the 
greatest number of exceptional people (11) came from mediocre 
parentage, but the greatest proportion of tall people came from 
extremely tall parentage. Thus the 1 1 of this column were the 
product of 183 families (see column 16), while as many as 7 
were produced by 19 midparents that were three inches taller, 
— another evidence of regression and of progression as well. 

Reversion. When we see how many tall people beget short 
children and how many tall children come of short parents (see 
rows // and k in the table), we are not surprised that occasion- 
ally an unaccountable case will turn up, as when a red-headed 
boy is born of black-haired parents, and nobody can remember 
even a red-headed grandparent. Aye, remember ; there 's the 
trouble. The total ancestry runs back for many generations and 
we remember but a few, — rarely back of the grandparent, — 
whereas each of us has over two thousand ancestors within ten 
generations. In the case of the red-headed boy some one of them 
was in all likelihood red-headed, and this that has turned up is 
a " reversion " to that ancestor ; for every indh'idual transmits 
all the characters of his ancestry, and anything that is trans- 
mitted may at any time become dominant and then visible. 
That is about all there is of the matter of reversion or throw- 
ing back, about which such a "to do" has been made. As a 
physiological fact it is interesting ; as a matter in plant or 
animal improvement it hardly applies, for as soon as systematic 
selection is a little while practiced, the chance of reversion 
rapidly reduces to practically nothing. 

Degeneracy. This is a matter of importance in human affairs 
rather than in those of the animal and plant, but facts such as 



1 64 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

this table shows, lead us to look with suspicion upon the indi- 
vidual that is " born short." He may be the offspring of excel- 
lent parentage, as in column 2, rows c and g, in which case the 
pull of regression will be greatly in his favor. But, on the other 
hand, he may be the product of bad parentage, as in column 2, 
rows k, I, and ni, in which cases the matter is well-nigh hopeless, 
as many a poor girl has found, who has married a scamp to 
" reform him." He has broken her heart and wasted her life 
all because she did not know the simplest facts about transmis- 
sion. If a man is well born, it is upon him to show his breeding, 
if he can, and if not, to prove that his ancestry was at least 
respectable and not much below mediocrity ; and if he cannot do 
this, he is a great risk as a partner in any business. Disregard 
of these simple facts is responsible for the wholesale production 
of hereditar)' criminals, and until laws are framed and executed 
to prevent unbridled reproduction among degenerates, we shall 
continue to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. Visit our 
prisons and poorhouses and be convinced that while some of 
the inmates are normal men with a bad history, most of them 
are there because of their unfortunate ancestry. The sooner we 
realize that, on the average, men are about what their ancestr}^ 
as a whole is, the better it will be both for individuals and for 
the community. Study the left-hand side of the table in breed- 
ing corn for high and low oil (p. 161), and see how rapidly de- 
generation proceeds when parentage is restricted to inferior 
lines. Then also reflect on the danger of reversion if inferior 
blood is mixed with the good. The only safety in human af- 
fairs, as in those of animals and plants, lies in a long line of 
selected ancestry or, in other words, in good blood. 

All characters that have ever been studied behave substantially 
the same as stature, and this table of Galton's, therefore, may 
be regarded as exhibiting the general law of heredity for all 
characters, l^y this we see that we are not to expect that the 
offspring will be like the parent except in a general way, and 
within more or less general limits ; that we need not be surprised 



DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION 165 

at almost anything that may happen in individual cases, from 
which we infer that we shall never be able to predict from the 
parents what a particular offspring will be, but that we can tell 
very close as to what they will be in the long run and on the 
average ; and that the more uniform the ancestry, the more 
accurate will the prediction be, and the more uniformity will 
there be among individuals. We see, too, by the principle of 
progression, that under selection the correspondence between 
parent and offspring becomes rapidly closer. 

Summary. The individual offspring is seldom like the parent. It may 
be better (progression) or it may be worse (regression), but in general the 
offspring is like the parentage as a whole. More exceptional offspring arise 
from common parentage than from exceptional parentage because mediocrity 
is the common lot, yet the proportion of exceptional offspring is higher from 
the exceptional parent than from the mediocre. 

Reversion shows that as long as even a trace of old-time characters 
exists, the gametes are not absolutely pure, and an occasional appearance of 
such ancient characters is inevitable. Being ancient, they are correlated 
with others, and are likely to creep upon the breeder unawares, like the high 
shoulders and thin flanks of cattle, or the inferior hams of pigs. 

The offspring, therefore, is to be considered not so much the product of 
his personal parents as of his parentage as a whole. 



CHAITI^R XI I r 

THE LAW OF ANCESTRAL HEREDITY i 

The extent to which the offspring resembles the parent and the extent to 
which he resembles more remote ancestors- Chance of resembling a partic- 
ular individual ancestor • The individual a composite ■ The number " two "' 

The extent to which the offspring resembles the parent and 
the extent to which he resembles more remote ancestors. We 

have seen already that all individuals transmit and all individuals 
possess more unit characters than can possibly be fully developed 
and represented in \'isible form in their own personality ; that 
is, every race is rich in characters, — so rich that not all of them 
can be utilized in the make-up of any single individual. 

We understand, then, that the offspring gets all his char- 
acters from and through his immediate parents ; there is no 
other source. We understand, too, that he gets not only those 
that were specially developed in the personality of the parents, 
but all others of the race as well, and that out of these the 
personality of the offspring will be developed. 

We understand, also, that the intensity of transmission is in 
proportion to intensity of possession, and this for the most part 
corresponds fairly well to the intensity of infusion of the racial 
characters among the back ancestors ; that is t(^ sav, if a char- 
acter is present in all the ancestors, it will almost certainly 
appear in the offspring, while if it is present in but half of the 
ancestry, the chances are even that it will be transmitted in the 
latent form. 

All things considered, therefore, we should not expect the off- 
spring to be like the parent, unless the ancestr)^ were so pure 

1 For a fuller discussion of this subject, see " Principles of lireeding," 

PP- 5-5-53-1- 

i66 



THE LAW OF ANCESTRAL IIEREDrfY 167 

or the characters so few that all individuals are practically iden- 
tical. This could not be in a race so rich in characters as man 
or even the common domesticated animals, which differ so de- 
cidedly in form, color, activity, and mental qualities, besides 
many internal activities that cannot be readily detected. 

We should however expect that the offspring would resemble 
the immediate parents more closely than any other ancestors on 
the score of relative intensities and nearness of blood, and this 
expectation is fulfilled. 

Galton and Pearson have given much study to this question, 
and, arriving at results from independent standpoints and by 
methods quite distinct, agree on the following formula as ex- 
pressing what, on the a-oerage, is the degree of resemblance to 
be expected between the offspring and the several generations 
of ancestors backward : 1, \, \, Jg, Jj, etc., to infinity. 

It will be noticed that each fraction of this series is exactly 
half of the preceding fraction ; also that if the series be carried 
to infinity, the fractions would add up to i, thus accounting for 
the total inheritance. This means, substantially, that in general 
and on the average the offspring will resemble, to the extent of 
half his personality, the two immediate parents, and of course 
will divide that resemblance between them equally.^ To the ex- 
tent of one fourth of his appearance he vi^ould resemble his 
grandparents, the resemblance being distributed between the 
four. One eighth of his visible characters may be credited to 
the next generation (great-grandparents), one sixteenth to the 
next, etc., indefinitely backward, thus accounting for all sorts of 
remote resemblances or atavisms. 

All this is not saying that every individual will thus accurately 
divide his resemblances, but it is saying that for large numbers 
the resemblances will be found to follow this plan, and wherever 

^ This may seem wrong to the reader, because the offspring will resemble 
more closely the better bred parent. That, however, as we shall see, is due to 
the influence back of the parent. If the breeding were good enough, all the 
ancestors would be alike. 



1 68 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



it has been tested on a large scale, as in the color of dogs, theory 
is found to be true to the facts. 

This series of fractions, therefore, may be taken as a good 
statement of the law of ancestral heredity, or the probable re- 
semblances between successive generations of the same family 
line, whether the line be of pure or of mixed breeding. Of 
course, as has been observed, if the line be extremely well 
selected and closely bred, then all resemblances will be close, 
and it may even look as if the resemblance to the immediate 
parents is absolute ; but this is only because the near and the 
remote ancestors are alike, and a little study of species in general 
will convince the student that the natural proportions are as 
stated, which series also represents the relative degree of rela- 
tionship and intensities as can be represented by no other series 
of fractions that could be arranged. 

Chance of resembling a particular individual ancestor. This 
series of fractions refers to generations, not to indixidual an- 
cestors. Each must be di\ided b\- the number of indixiduals of 
that generation in order to get the chance of the offspring 
resembling any particular ancestor, say, the paternal grand- 
mother. The following table gives in condensed form this series 
of fractions, thus apportioned among the individual ancestors. 

Effective Heritage contributed by Each Gexeration and 

BY Each Separate Ancestor according to the 

Law of Ancestral Heredity 





Generation 


Contribution of each 


Number of an- 


Contribution of each 


backward 


generation 


cestors involved 


ancestor 


I 


1 


2 


i 


2 


I 


4 


1 


3 


1 


8 


.V 


4 


A 


i6 


^h 


5 


^v 


3- 


To'iT 


6 


sV 


64 


^sVs 



From this we see that an individual five generations back stands 
but one chance in over a thousand of impressing a character 



THE LAW OF ANCESTRAL HEREDITY 169 

upon the offspring, and this chance grows rapidly less as we go 
backward, never, however, becoming zero ; so that it is possible 
that resemblances to any ancestor, no matter how far removed, 
may crop out in individual cases from time to time, giving 
strange but not unaccountable cases of reversion. These are ex- 
tremely noticeable, first, from their variety ; and second, from the 
fact that complete ignorance generally surrounds all ancestry 
more than a generation or two back. What chance is there, for 
example, for knowing much about the separate characters of 
each of the thirty individuals involved in the first four genera- 
tions only ? The next generation backward would add thirty-two 
more, showing how rapidly the transmission becomes compli- 
cated, particularly when we remember that all the ancestry has 
contributed to the individual. 

The individual a composite. This makes it look as if the 
individual were pretty well distributed among his ancestry from 
his parents backward, and that is exactly the condition of matters. 
The individual is a kind of mosaic, taking a portion (on the 
average one half) of his resemblances from his parents, others 
from his grandparents, and still others from earlier ancestors, 
even to the remote past. 

At first thought this may seem impossible, but upon careful 
research we find that racial characters are but loosely held to- 
gether,^ and it is only upon reflection that we realize the extent 
to which combinations and recombinations take place and how 
resemblances come and go in a long line of ancestry. 

In this way an individual may seem in some particular to re- 
semble, we will say, the paternal grandsire, whereas the actual 
resemblance is not only to him but to perhaps a score or more 
of similar ancestors still further back and long forgotten, but 
whose blood lines combined with and intensifying those of 

1 Shown by the fact that the "' correlation " or bond that compels characters 
to move together is very low, seldom as much as 50 per cent, so that almost 
literally it is a free-for-all contest when matters of hereditary resemblances 
are being determined. For a full discussion of Correlation, see " Principles of 
Breeding," chap. xiii. 



170 DOMESTICATED AXLNLVLS AND PLANTS 

the grandparent in this particular character bring it suddenly 
into prominence. 

The number " two." The student cannot fail to be struck 
with the extent to which the number '" two " figures in these 
affairs. The product of mixed breeding, if unrestricted, follows 
the binomial formula, giving definite mathematical proportions 
to the combinations of characters. The normal distribution 
when studying type follows the same formula, and the law of 
ancestral heredity is made up of fractions derived from the 
universal " two." 

This is not accidental, but perfectly natural. Inheritance 
everywhere is the result of combinations of characters from two 
parents ; not only that, but all growth is the result of cell divi- 
sion, which means parting into two, so that the number " two " 
lies at the very base of all affairs involving transmission. It is 
not strange, therefore, that the whole matter rests on a definite 
mathematical basis, that the chance combinations of characters 
can be predicted in the long run, or that the law of ancestral 
resemblances should be the ver)' remarkable series 1^, 1, |, 
etc. It really could not be othenvise, with bisexual reproduc- 
tion and with growth by cell division involving a splitting 
of the chromosomes as the two characteristic attendants upon 
heredity. 

Summary. The offspring is a composite of all the blood of all his an- 
cestors in proportions fairly definite. We cannot predict what the individual 
may be, but of large numbers we can predict that their resemblances to ances- 
tral traits will follow the series i, ^, i, etc., in which the two immediate 
parents divide between them the chances of impressing the offspring ; and 
the other fractions are each divisible by the number of ancestors of the 
corresponding generation, so that of large numbers of offspring a certain 
definite number (25 per cent of all) will resemble the one parent with respect 
to any given unit character, 25 per cent will resemble the other parent in 
respect to the same character, and the remaining resemblances will be 
distributed proportionately among the back ancestors. The number '' two " 
characterizes all reproduction, wliich therefore tends to confttrm to the 
binomial theorem. 



CHAPTER XIV 
HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 

Mistaken estimate of environment • All the characters of the race, both good 

and bad, are transmitted to the individual by his parentage • The function 

of environment is to assist or to hinder in development • Environment 

does not add unit characters • Modifications due to environment 

Mistaken estimate of environment. There has been handed 
down to us from our ancestors, by way of tradition, an altogether 
false estimate of the role of environment in matters of evolu- 
tion and of life. This false estimate arose naturally as the result 
of the old-time assumption that all men were born alike, and 
whether they turned out to be good or bad depended entirely 
upon the influences by which they were surrounded. 

Now no one can overestimate the power of good opportu- 
nities or the danger of bad influences, but it is highly desirable 
that we understand the facts as they actually are. 

All the characters of the race, both good and bad, are trans- 
mitted to the individual by his parentage. We have seen 
already that every individual possesses all the characters of the 
race, because he can transmit them. Many of them may be 
undeveloped and invisible, and therefore we may not know that 
he possesses them till we see his progeny under favorable con- 
ditions for their development ; but we may be assured that they 
are there in some degree of intensity, if they were known ever 
to have existed in the ancestry. Whether they develop or not 
will depend upon two factors : first, their inherent relative inten- 
sity ; and second, the accident as to whether conditions of life 
are favorable or unfavorable. 

I have been careful to say " transmitted by his parentage," 
not " his parents," They came through his parents, it is true, 

171 



172 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

for there was no other way, and in that sense they came bv them ; 
but the responsibiHty mav, as we now know, he far l)aek of the 
immediate parent, (^f all this we have abundant illustrations in 
both the plant and animal world. In mixed breeding, under 
Mendel's law, we have seen already how long a character may 
Hnger and how easily it may outcrop even generations later. 
Reversions and the law of ancestral heredity teach us the same 
truth, namely, that all races have an exceedingly mixed ancestr}', 
partly desirable and partly undesirable, and that all races have 
more characters than can be fully developed in any indi\idual 
or under any single set of conditions. 

The dog, our most faithful friend, is, after all. a descendant 
of the wild wolves of the forest, and he still possesses some of 
the ancient instinct to trail, to hunt, and to kill. In manv cases, 
under unfavorable conditions, tliis wild instinct gets the better of 
him and he becomes a dangerous animal. The breeding of bull- 
dogs for ferocity is attended with great danger, because this 
particular trait is so closely in line with the old-time instincts 
of the savage ancestors. The only protection of the horse is 
flight, and we all know by experience that some individuals are 
by nature so timid that under unfavorable conditions they will 
run away and are ever after unreliable. 

Many individuals of our own race are unfortimately "born 
short " ; that is, with the better characters weak and those of 
savager)' relatively strong. Such men are almost certain to be 
dangerous even under the best conditions. Unfortunately, too, 
many who are better born have yet enough of the barbarous to 
develop under unfavorable conditions and make them, too, dan- 
gerous, when under good conditions they would have been 
harmless. It is highly desirable that the best conditions pos- 
sible be maintained, not only to prevent as many as may be 
from going wrong, but also to help us to know and to sort out 
the real degenerate, who is bound to go wrong anyhow. Again, 
and aside from all this, nobody knows exactly what his own 
ancestry is, — just what traits of character are waiting only for 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 173 

favorable conditions for development, nor just how much he 
can endure in the way of adverse circumstances without some 
of the more undesirable characters of his family line under- 
going development and getting the upper hand. 

By any and all counts, with our animals and plants and with 
ourselves we are bound to maintain the most favorable environ- 
ment possible, but it should be on the score of its influence 
upon development, not under the mistaken idea that it can take 
the place of heredity or in any other way compensate for the 
failure of inheritance or mistakes of the ancestors. 

The function of environment is to assist or to hinder in 
development. If environment is then so mighty a factor, is not 
the old tradition right after all ? No, The characters of the 
family line are planted before birth by the particular ancestry, 
whatever that may be. In all cases they are both good and bad. 
In the best families and the purest blood, plant or animal, the 
bad have been reduced to a relatively low intensity and a cor- 
responding low probability of development. In the worst fami- 
lies, unfortunately, the bad characters are the strongest ones, 
likely to develop even under the best conditions, because the 
better faculties are in low intensity — mathematically low in 
power. 

Now the character of the individual in his own personality 
will depend not so much upon his total inheritance as upon the 
particular characters that develop, and these will depend very 
largely, though not entirely, upon the conditions with which he 
is surrounded, especially in early life. 

To illustrate : Take ten ears of corn that look exactly alike. 
Plant them separately in rows, side by side, giving to each the 
same soil and the same cultivation ; that is, surround them 
with the same conditions and opportunities. Will they yield 
alike ? Most assuredly not. They may differ as much as 50 
per cent, and possibly more. Why .'' They were bred differ- 
ently ; they inherited different powers of germination and of 
vigor in obtaining and assimilating the plant food of the soil. 



174 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Take a Jersey and a Shorthorn calf. Feed both all thc\' will 
eat. Will the Jersey equal the Shorthorn in growth and in flesh .'' 
No ; though he will be larger than another Jersey that has not 
been so well fed. Feed a race horse liberally, and will he make 
a draft horse .-' No. Starve a draft horse, and will he make a 
racer ? No. Flver}thing will make what it was born to make, 
or as near it as conditions permit. It is the function of the 
environment to provide the opportunity and the materials for 
development. If we desire the development of a particular 
character, it is wise, after having secured it in the transmission, 
to provide the means for its development. If, on the other 
hand, we are conscious of the presence of an undesirable char- 
acter in the nature of the animal or the plant, it is wise to with- 
hold and prevent as far as lies within our power all influences 
and conditions favorable to its development, and thereby make 
its appearance as diflficult and as unlikely as possible, hoping that 
its ugly existence will remain forever dormant, understanding 
well that the longer it remains undeveloped and unencouraged 
the less likely is it to come to the surface.^ 

Environment does not add unit characters. Characters do 
not arise out of their environment. They were there before or 
they do not appear. Jersey cattle cannot be turned to red by 
keeping them in a red barn, nor does the color of the colt 
depend upon that of the working mate of the mother. 

No man was ever made a thief by seeing others steal, unless 
he had a little of the thief in him before by inheritance. We 
ourselves are not yet so far removed from savagery but that 
these fundamental barbarisms still beset us to some extent. 
The savage steals and kills and tortures, and our race is not 
yet free from some slight taint of these elemental characters. 

1 That is why it is the highest duty of every person not only to keep /i/m- 
se// safe, but also to keep his family line clean of undesirable blood lines which, 
if introduced, will crop out to plague generations yet unborn. We owe all this 
to the future. Unfortunately our own ancestors have not <?// lived up to their 
duty in this regard, as most of us can testify by our own evil if not dangerous 
impulses, mixed here and there with the best that is in us. 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 175 

They do not belong with civihzation, and civihzation must ehmi- 
nate them as fast as possible, first, by the control of degenerates ; 
and second, by making conditions so good as to reduce the 
development of these uncivilized characters to a minimum. 

This principle is well understood by farmers in dealing with 
animals and crops. They know that a well-bred animal needs 
good conditions, good feed, good shelter, and good advantages 
generally. They know that good varieties need good soil and 
favorable climate. 

They know, too, that ill-bred animals will not respond to good 
feed and care, and that poor varieties will not become good by 
raising them on a good soil. The principle is universal, that 
the nature of the race is fixed by its breeding. Its personality 
may be helped or hindered, but cannot be created by its 
environment. 

Modifications due to environment. If two individuals could 
be born alike, but grow to maturity in very different environ- 
ments, the two would look very different. These differences 
are the modifications due to environment or the conditions 
and opportunities of life. 

These modifications, we have seen, are due to the fact that 
any given environment is favorable to the development of 
certain characters and unfavorable to others. Thus a hot 
country is favorable to the development of spiny growth and 
harshness of leaf, but unfavorable to the growth of wool. 

Two children are born with equal talent for painting. The 
one lives with artists all his life, the other with commercial 
people. Manifestly, the one will most likely be an artist and 
the other will most likely learn trade, unless, as in rare cases, 
the instinct is so strong as to be overpowering. 

In one sense, therefore, all living matter is modified by and 
according to the conditions of life, but in another sense it is 
not, for no character can develop, however favorable the sur- 
roundings, unless the faculty was first inherited ; that is to say, 
the environment cannot supply lacking unit characters. 



176 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Can modifications due to environment be transmitted ? This 
is the old and much debated question of inheritance of acquired 
characters. It means in brief this : If a horse is spavined, will 
the spavin be transmitted to the offspring ? If a man is a great 
musical performer, will his child be a better musician than if the 
parent never learned music ? Also, would this musician's younger 
children inherit more of the musical faculty than would the older 
children, born before the highest development of the parent's 
powers ? 

Will the calf of a cow that has made a phenomenal record 
at the pail be itself a better cow than would the same calf from 
the same cow if she had only moderate feed and care ? Will 
cutting off the horns of cattle tend to produce, by and by, a 
hornless race ? 

This is the class of questions involved at this point. The 
matter is too intricate for treatment here, except to say that, in 
the opinion of the author, the class of modifications here men- 
tioned are not transmitted ; for example, we have been cutting 
off the tails of lambs for many generations, but sheep are not 
yet born without tails. Heredity is not so easily influenced as 
all that, because the germ plasm (the sex cell) is not affected 
by an operation like dehorning or cutting off the tail. 

There is doubtless a class of modifications that may affect the 
germ plasm and therefore be transmitted. I refer to all-pervad- 
ing influences like temperature and alkalinity for lower organ- 
isms, and for the higher animals and plants, to nutrition and to 
definite chemical compounds, like poisons and toxins from con- 
tagious and infectious diseases. 

The student who desires to pursue this subject at length is 
referred to " Principles of Breeding," pp. 22 1-345, and collateral 
literature. 

Summary. What the offspring is at maturity depends, first of all, upon 
the possibilities born into him ; and second, upon the opportunities for their 
development afforded by the environment. Every individual inherits all 
the faculties of the race, both good and bad, yet the fact remains that 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



177 



some of these faculties, both good and bad, are so exceedingly weak as to be 
practically wanting, and capable of development only in the most persistently 
favorable environment. However favorable the environment, faculties will 
not develop which were not inherited from the family line, any more than 
would living in a white house make a white man out of a negro child. 

References. 1. " Principles of Breeding." 

2. " Essays on Heredity and The Germ Plasm." Separate volumes by 
Weismann against the transmission of modification. 

3. " An Examination of Weismannism and Post-Darwinian Questions." 
Separate volumes by Romanes, favoring transmission of modifications. 



CHAPTER XV 

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 

Origin of the " pure bred " • Pedigree registers • Advanced registry • Unregis- 
tered stock and scrubs • Systems of breeding • Source of sires • Herd im- 
provement and breed improvement ■ Rational improvement • Choosing the 
breed • Breed differences slight • Market classes and grades • Knowledge of 
market requirements needful 

Origin of the "pure bred." As the different species of ani- 
mals were domesticated they were naturally kept by different 
races of men and under a great variety of conditions. These 
different people had different ideals and standards of selection, 
and these, together with the various natural conditions of food 
and climate, all helped to develop not one but many different 
varieties of the race ; cattle, for example, and similarly for dogs, 
horses, sheep, and all other domesticated species. 

Naturally some of these were better than others, and their 
special admirers would do what they could to prevent their mix- 
ing with other and inferior strains, that is, to keep them pure. 
In this way we have the so-called "pure" breeds, numbering 
in all more than a hundred more or less distinct strains, each 
with its own type and standard of selection.^ 

England, for instance, was from early times a great cattle 
country. In the central part, about Hertfordshire, there early 
developed a heavy strain known as Longhorns, since modified 
into the Herefords. 

In the northeast another superior strain developed among 
the excellent stockmen along the river Tees and in the county 
of Durham, known first as Teeswater cattle, afterward as Dur- 
hams, and finally as Shorthorns, to distinguish them from the 

^ For a description of all the more common breeds of animals, see " Types 
and Breeds of Farm Animals," by Professor Plumb. 

178 



SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 179 

Longhorns of middle England, with which they came into com- 
petition in the show ring. All this was a hundred years ago, but 
the two strains or "breeds" are becoming more, rather than less, 
distinct because each is being selected to its own type, thus still 
further emphasizing its distinctive characters. No good stock- 
man would now think of mixing them, so that everything keeps 
them apart, while nothing brings them together. Under con- 
ditions such as these the breeds become more distinct and their 
characters more fixed year by year. 

In a similar way southwest England developed the Devons ; 
southeast England the Norfolk and Suffolk, now known as the 
Red Polled ; and Scotland developed the Ayrshire, Galloway, 
and Aberdeen Angus. 

Horses, sheep, and swine, dogs, cats, and even pigeons, — in- 
deed, all other domesticated animals, — have, in much the same 
way, developed a variety of favorite strains which in time come to 
be recognized as breeds, and the individuals of such distinct strains 
are spoken of as " pure breds."^ Thus arose the so-called pure 
breeds, whose purity of blood is seen to be relative rather than 
absolute, for all of them when traced far enough back ' ' run into 
the woods," that is, merge into the common stock of the region 
out of which they arose by methods here but briefly outlined. 

Pedigree registers. It is manifest that the early breeders ex- 
perienced much difficulty in determining purity of blood and in 
avoiding the use of individuals of mixed or impure blood lines, 
nor is it difficult to understand the necessity of some recognized 
record as the ultimate authority. The number of animals that any 
breeder might personally know to be pure would be exceedingly 
limited. Again, the purer the blood the more the animal is worth, 
other things equal ; and the temptation for unprincipled stockmen 
to claim purity of blood for mixed animals is clearly extreme. 

1 The word " thoroughbred " is sometimes erroneously used to designate 
such animals. This term is the breed name of the English running horse and 
should never be used as synonymous with pure bred. Thus we can have a 
pure-bred cow, but a thoroughbred is a horse, and a running horse at that. 



l8o lH)MKSri(.Al'KI) ANIMALS AND I'l.AN FS 

For all these reasons the establishment of a record in which 
should be recorded the pedij^ree of all animals claiming- purity 
of blood became an early necessity. It was done first with tlie 
Thoroughbred at the time of the earl\- I^ngiish races, ^ and 
followed rapidly afterward with cattle, swine, and e\en dogs. 

In the pedigree register the animal's name is recorded, but 
he is known and officially designated b\- his serial number, 
assigned by the secretary of the association. The pedigree re- 
cords also the date of hirtli, the name ami number of the sire 
and generally of the dam, lt)gether with the name of the owner 
and sometimes some distinguishing mark that may be used for 
identification. In genenil, the pedigree is a guarantee not only 
of purity of blood but also, in a general way, of the family lines 
to which the indiyidual beK)ngs. Identifying any particular 
indiyidual with the pedigree is a matter that rests solely with 
the breeder, and (ov this reason the yalue of the pedigree of any 
animal is largely dependent upon the reliability of the owner, 
because he may falsify the report if he desires to do so. 

' \yith t!ic decline of chivalry after the crusades came the just, or tilt, in 
which first real and afterward nominal knights played at war. Later this de- 
veloped into the fox or hare hunt, and later still into the horse race. From the 
first the horses figured largely, especially such as were taken from the Arabs 
at the' time of the crusades. .\s the tournament descended to the hunt the 
relative importance of the horse increased, and as this in turn merged into the 
race, the horse was of far more consequence than the rider. So a boy was 
substituted for the owner, and thus the knight of the tournament became the 
jockey of the horse race. \Vhen the hunt first became the race, the fox or the 
hare was let loose in a circular course, well fenced, and then run down with 
riders and dogs ; but later the fox and the fence were omitted on the assump- 
tion that the horse that could first get around the track would best be able to 
run down the fox, were the game a real hunt. 

All this time the sport was confined to the gentry, whose horses were more 
or less directly descended from Arabian or other stock brought to luigland 
during or immediately after the crusades, which saw the practical end of the 
agQ of chivalry. As the sport grew, some way had to be devised to keep out 
the mob. and the rules early forbade the entry of any horse whose breeding 
could not be traced along certain approved lines. This led naturally to written 
and afterward to printed records of pedigrees, a custom that began naturally 
in horse racing and which has been extended to all breeding as being the most 
ready means of identifying blood lines and of establishing authentic records of 
breeding. 



SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS i8l 

Manifestly, when a breeder files a pedigree with the request 
that it be published in the association record, the secretary is 
in a position to know whether the sire and dam mentioned are 
really owned by the breeder at the time mentioned, and to this 
extent the association can vouch for the accuracy of the pedigree ; 
but nobody but the breeder can testify that a particular individual 
is the one covered by that pedigree. Here is where the honor of 
the breeder is involved, and it is a great tribute to modern busi- 
ness methods when we can truthfully say that it is rare indeed 
for a breeder to falsify a breeding record or to substitute an 
inferior animal for the one mentioned in the pedigree.^ Some 
errors creep in through carelessness and inaccurate methods of 
record keeping, no doubt, but these are being reduced rapidly, 
and no class of men rank higher than breeders, whether judged 
by standards of accuracy or those of business honor. 

The following specimens will illustrate about what is covered 
in the ordinary registered pedigree. 

The first animal ever recorded was the running mare, A-la- 
Grecque, the first listed in the General Studbook, published 
1 808, the record running as follows : 

Bred by Mr. Piatt in 1 763, got by Regulus — her dam by Allworthy — 
granddam by the Bolton Starling — great-granddam, Daisy Maid, by Bloody 
Buttocks — • great-great-granddam, Bay Brocklesby by Old Pointer — great- 
great-great-granddam, Brocklesby, by Greyhound, out of Brocklesby Betty. 

Year Produce 

1772 ch. c. Pontac by Marske ^ 

1773 f. by ditto (dam of Tencer) 

1774 ch. c. by Chatsworth j>Sir L. Dundas 

1775 f. by ditto 
1777 ch. c. Arske by ditto 

1 780 b. c. Balloon by Telemachus ^ 

1 78 1 b. f. Emma by ditto (dam of Applegarth) I . t- t-, j 

1783 b. f. Maria by ditto (dam of Marianne) 1 

1 784 ch. c. Templar by Magnet J 

1 There are those who insist that no business men can be trusted, but the 
business of the breeder can be carried on in no other way than upon honor, 
and all associations exclude from their privileges any man who has defrauded 
in pedigrees. 



1 82 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

By this \vc note that the pedigree runs entirely on the dam's 
side, — indeed, no sires were at first reeorded; that her first ofT- 
spring' was a chestnut male^ and dropped in 1772 when she was 
nine years of age, and that she raised a foal every year afterward 
except 1776, 1778, 1779, and 1782, — nine in all. Other pedi- 
grees recorded in this volume trace freely to Arabian stock. 

The next pedigree register was Coates's Merdbook, pub- 
lished in 1822 to record pedigrees of Shortliorn cattle or, as 
they were called, improved Shorthorns, as bred at that time 
largely by Mr. Thomas Bates and his associates in middle 
England, but tracing to the Teeswater cattle of the county of 
Durham. 

This register recorded both bulls and cows, arranged alpha- 
betically by name, but for the first time serial numbers were 
assigned, though only to the males. Thus the first one recorded 
(No. I ) is Abelard, calved in 1 8 1 2 ; but further over in the 
volume we find Comet (155), calved in 1804, and the famous 
Hubback. calved in 1777. These early volumes are full of 
attempts to verify the breeding of early but famous animals 
then long dead, as were in many cases their owners as well. 

So man)- Shorthorns have since been bred that the numbers 
have run very high. Sixty-nine large volumes are filled with the 
pedigrees of American Shorthorns onlv. the latest numbers 
running above 273000. 

A typical Shorthorn pedigree would now be recorded as 
follows : 

Palmer 270057. 

Red, calved March 3. 1906. Bred by J. E. Gilbertson, Utica, Minn.; 
owned by Lars Somm, Rushford, Minn.; got by Old David 1S9406, out of 
Aurora (V^ol. Lin,p. 711) by 5th Favorite of Springbrook 141 61 7 — tracing 
to imp. Daisy by Wild 1 1 1 34. 

All this means that this record gives both the breeder and 
the owner, and affirms that the sire of the calf was Old David 

^ "c." stands for colt, which is male; "f." for fillv, which is female; "ch." 
stands for chestnut, " b." for bay, " hi." for black, etc. 



SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 183 

1 89406, and that the dam was Aurora, who is recorded in Vol. 
LI 1 1 on page 711;^ that her sire was 5th Favorite of Spring- 
brook, whose recorded number is 14 16 17, and under which 
we would find his full pedigree ; and further that this line of 
breeding traces to the imported cow Daisy, whose sire was 
Wild 1 1 134. 

Pedigrees for cows run the same, except that they have no 
numbers, but are arranged alphabetically by name under the 
breeders, also alphabetically arranged. This deplorable system 
makes it necessary to designate females by the number of the 
volume and the page on which their pedigrees appear. Mani- 
festly, names are useless for purposes of designation because 
so many are duplicates. 

The Hereford system is much better, as everything, male and 
female alike, is recorded by number in serial order, — a plan 
that is being more and more generally followed, whether the 
animals recorded are horses, cattle, sheep, or swine. 

Advanced registry. It is readily noted that the ordinary pedi- 
gree is merely a guarantee against mixed blood lines ; that is, 
that all the blood of the individual is of the specified breed and 
no other. It does not, however, pretend to say whether or not 
a particular individual is a good one. It may be the best of 
its kind or the poorest, and nothing in the pedigree would make 
the buyer the wiser. On this point he is dependent upon 
examination alone. 

The advanced registry, however, is a kind of second registra- 
tion, based upon performance, and is thus a guarantee of quality. 
Among horses it is based upon their track records,^ and among 
dairy cows upon the amount of milk or butter fat made within 
a given length of time, according to an officially recognized test. 

A specimen of advanced registry taken from the Holstein- 
Friesian books runs as follows : 

.1 In the Shorthorn books the dams still have no numbers and must be 
designated in this awkward way. 
2 See the Year-Book. 



1 84 DOMKSriCATKl) ANIMALS AXD PLANTS 

No. 4044 Jolic Johanna Clothilde De Kol 72194 

Jolie Johanna ( f Mutual Friend 3d"s Paul 14S A. R. 

Clothilde De kol . ,, ^ De kol 2d 412 A.R.O. In 10 vr. 

. ,, ,, , I tualPauli52A.R. , ^ ^ „ . 

4044 A.R.O. hw -^ [^11 mo. 3 da. 21.261 lb. fat 

3 yr. 7 mo. 23 da. Jolie Johanna Clothilde f Onyx Clothilde Pledge 23639 

M.50S lb. fat 1^52356 \ Jolic Onyx 43770 

Owned by W. C. Hunt. Liverpool, N.Y. ; bred by Ceorge F. Carter, 
Syracuse, N.Y. Calved April i 1, 1901. Official butter record : dropped calf 
December 4. 1 904. at 3 yr. 7 mo. 23 da. of age ; commenced record January 1 7, 
1905 ; closed record January 23; 7 days' production, 1 1 lb. 5 oz. butter fat; 
milk, 345.5 lb. Attested by L. L. Dcvereaux, Cornell Ihiiversity, Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station. 

The need of this kind of information is o\idcnt. The breeder, 
bent upon impro\ement, desires to bu\- and to keep the /^rst of 
a breed, not the poorest or even tlie medium. A glance at the 
table on page 1 56 will show that the mass will alwa\s be mediocre, 
and that while much excellence springs from mediocrity, it is 
relatively infrequent, so that if a man desires to breed excep- 
tional animals, he will get a larger proportion of such if he 
breeds from e\cej:)tional parents. 

Here is where the problems of the breeder differ from those 
of political science. A glance at the table cited will show that 
a hereditar}' monarchy is certain to run, not occasionally but 
frequently, into mediocrity for its ruler. Let stature stand a 
moment for genius or statesmanship. Then a ruler represented 
by 70.5 inches in the table is certainly well above the medium, 
but his son may be anything from above ys-~ 'ind better than 
the father down to below 62,2, the minimimi of the race. 

Republics, on the other hand, elect their rulers, that is, select 
them after birth and maturity, and ]ia\e a chance to choose 
individuals above the mediocre, with no reference either to 
ancestry or descent, as the .son is in nowise involved. This 
is why republics can ha\e better average rulers. I'hough they 
are likely not to rise to the supreme height of some hereditary 
monarchs, they will never sink to the depths of others, and 
upon the whole they are safer. 



SYSTEMATIC IMrROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 185 

The breeder, on the other hand, is concerned with the offspring, 
and he will stake his fortunes with the best bred ancestors, not 
because all their descendants will be equally good, but because 
the proportion will be higher.^ 

Unregistered stock and scrubs. Unregistered animals are of 
two kinds : first, those that cannot be recorded because their 




Fig. 27. Inferior feeder, $4.75 per hundredweight (1910) ; usual price, 
$2.75 per hundredweight 

From " Beef Production," by Mumford 

ancestry is exceedingly mixed, — known as scrubs ; and, second, 
those that are really pure in their blood lines but that cannot be 
recorded because the records are lost, or, for other reasons, their 
particular ancestry is not fully known. These are called simply 
unregistered. 

VA glance at the table in question will show that while tall people spring 
both from tall and from mediocre parents, the greatest proportion is from the 
tall parents ; thus 4 -^ 19 > 5 -=- 183 (see rows e and/ of the table). 



l86 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

The first class is, on the average, decidedly inferior because 
only parti}' improved, and though high-class individuals occasion- 
ally occur, even they are next to worthless for breeding purposes, 
because, under the law of ancestral heredity, the influences are 
so diverse that regressions and reversions will be common, even 
inevitable. The second class, on the other hand, may be virtu- 
ally and even actually high-class, pure-bred animals, whose 
records may have been lost by fire or other accident, or are 
otherwise untraceable. Such animals may be every whit as use- 
ful for everyday purposes as are registered stock, but the 
impossibility of knowing or stating their blood lines of course 
destroys their sale value as breeders. 

Now and always the great mass of our farm stock will be 
unrecorded animals. The business of the improver is to raise 
the quality of this stock to the nearest possible approach to the 
best recorded blood. This is the best we can hope to do, for 
there will always be a fczv best atiiiuals, and these are really 
the only ones worth recording. It adds nothing to the value 
of an inferior pure-blooded animal to record it, — indeed, it is 
better that such animals be not recorded, — and one of the 
first steps in practical improvement is to get rid of the pedi- 
gree scrub, meaning by that, those animals of good breeding 
which are themselves worthless. 

We have, then, two great classes of aninials : first, those whose 
ancestry is known and recorded ; and second, those whose an- 
cestry is not known. Manifestly, most of the best animals and 
all of those valuable for securing additional improvement are 
in the first class. 

Systems of breeding. With these facts before us we are ready 
to discuss the relative merits of different systems of breeding, 
which may be briefly outlined as follows : 

I. Mixed breeding, in which no attention whatever is paid 
to ancestry. It has the merit of cheapness and the disadvantage 
that no further improvement need be expected. If any syste- 
matic attempts should be made toward selecting to a constant 



systp:matic improvement of animals 187 

standard, then it would be at once necessary to keep records, 
and the animals so handled would be no longer mixed bred but 
would be on their way to becoming a new strain of pure breds. 
2. Pure breeding, in which only registered animals are used. 
This system has the advantage of securing the best results, but 




Fig. 28. Choice feeding steer, $6.25 per hundredweight (1910) ; usual 
price, $4.50 per hundredweight 

From " Beef Production," by Mumford 

it is relatively costly, especially with horses and cattle, but less 
so with the smaller and cheaper animals. 

3. Grading, in which the sire is pure bred, but the dam is 
not. This system combines the advantages of both preceding 
methods. It is but little more costly than the first, and is, for 
practical purposes, almost as effective as the second, 

4. Crossing, in which the sire is of one breed or set of blood 
lines, as Shorthorn, and the dam of another, as Jersey. This 
method combines the disadvantages of both the first and second 
methods in that it is as costly as pure breeding and in the end 



l88 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

not more effective than mixed breeding, which in triitli it really 
is, unless the object be the formation of a new breed, which is a 
long and tedious task, but entirely feasible in theory, as we 
have seen. 

Some additional points may well be noted upon these four 
systems of breeding. The first, or mixed breeding, has nothing 
to commend it to the progressive farmer. It is and always will 
be the method of the shortsighted stockman, who does not look 
ahead, and who sees nothing beyond immediate results, but who 
feels obliged and perhaps is obliged to be economical. 

Pure breeding requires relatively large numbers, in order to 
afford material for selection. With the larger animals this means 
large capital, putting this method of breeding out of the reach 
of the average stockman. With the smaller animals, especially 
the prolific pigs and poultry, every man should breed only pure- 
bred animals. Whether he goes to the trouble of getting them 
recorded will depend upon whether he desires to sell to other 
breeders or only to raise for the open market. 

With the larger and more expensive animals, grading is the 
form of improvement to be recommended for universal practice. 
Here the farmer uses the females already on hand and buys only 
the sire, which is the only recorded animal needed in this form 
of improvement. 

This sire is half parent to every young thing born, so the first 
crop of young will be half bloods ; that is, they will have half 
the advantage of pure breeding by the use of a single animal, 
while to give the offspring the other half would require the 
purchase not of a single animal but of as many as there are 
females in the herd, one dam for each offspring. 

Suppose, for example, a farmer has thirty common cow's. How 
will the expense run in the two methods of breeding? If he is to 
breed pure, he must sell these cows and with the proceeds buy 
pedigreed animals. It will take at least three common cows to 
buy one registered cow^ that is equally good as a performer, and 
if the pedigree " runs in the purple," it will take many more. 



SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 189 

On this basis, however, the two plans would compare about 
as follows : 

By grading, the farmer would have a crop of thirty half-blood 
calves. By pure breeding, his cows being reduced to one third, 
the number he could have would be but ten ; that is to say, he 
has more " blood " and therefore more improvement in his thirty 
half bloods than in his ten full bloods, as well as more animals 




Fig. 29. Choice (butcher) cow, $6.40 per hundredweight 
Mumford, in Bulletin 75, Experiment Station, University of Illinois 

to stock his farm and to afford material for selection. On the 
sire's side the expense has been the same. 

As between grading and mixed or unimproved breeding, the 
advantage is clearly with the former. The females are the same 
in both cases. The cost of feed for the sire is the same, and 
the only difference is in his original cost. A sire suitable for 
grading purposes can be had for a hundred dollars, which would 
be but $3.33 extra for each calf, to entirely pay for the bull 
with the first crop of calves. But he will raise successive crops, 



190 



DOMESTICATKI) ANIMALS AM) PLANTS 



and the scrub costs something, so that the increased cost of 
giving a calf half the advantage of pure breeding cannot be over 
a dollar apiece in a herd of this size. Moreover, this dollar is 
not on the calf but rather on the mature animal.^ 

Any way it is estimated, the great fact is, that b\- the system 
of grading, a single parent will give to every one of the young of 
the herd half the advantage of p?ire breeding in tJie first genera- 
tion. When, however, these half bloods reach breeding age, 
their offspring from a pure-bred sire will be not half bloods but 
three-quarter bloods, and their offspring will be seven eighths, 
and so on indefinitely, according to the following table : 

Rate ok Lmprovemkxt i-.v the System of Grading 



Generation 


Sire 


Dam 


Offspring 


Per cent 
improvement 


I 


Pure 


Scrub 


\ blood 


50. 


-> 


Pure 


i blood 


1 blood 


75- 


3 


Pure 


1 blood 


\ blood 


87-5 


4 


Pure 


1 blood 


J 1 blood 


93-75 


5 


Pure 


\\ blood 


1^ blood 


96.875 



By this we see that after five generations of grading the 
offspring have attained thirty-one thirty-seconds, or nearly 
97 per cent, of the improvement that is possible by the use 
of pure blood, and all by the use of a .single animal only at 
any given time, l^y this we see, too, that the sire alone can 
in time accomplish practically as much improvement as sire 
and dam could both accomplish at once, and all at an expense 
vastly less. 

Too much cannot be said in favor of improvement by grad- 
ing. It is safe, cheap, and sure, and, moreover, it does not dis- 
turb the affairs of the farmer. It means only the initial cost of 
a well-bred sire, and after that the improvement of the herd will 
take care of itself ; whereas, with scrub parents on both sides, no 

1 Of course, if the herd is being used for dairy purposes, only half the calves 
would be utilized, which would double the cost. 



SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 



191 



improvement is possible except by an outlay of labor and expense 
beyond that even of pure breeding, and at a cost of time far 
beyond that of grading. 

It is difficult to realize why farmers do not more generally 
avail themselves of this perfectly rational and exceedingly eco- 
nomical means of improvement, and see in their yards at once 
crops of uniform young instead of the motley lot that disgrace 




Fig. 30. Medium (butcher) cow, $4.75 per hundredweight 
After Mumford 

most of our barnyards. Their failure to do this is due to noth- 
ing but their failure to look ahead, to figure out the final out- 
come, and to look facts squarely in the face. 

The young people who read these pages can do a lasting 
service by using their influence in every way possible to hasten 
the use of better sires. All old countries have learned the lesson 
long ago. We need to learn it at once. Let the young people 
start it and hariji now. 



192 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Source of sires. Suitable sires can be had of any of the rep- 
utable breeders that advertise in our best journals, and at fair 
prices. They will cost more than they are worth for veal, of 
course, but it should be remembered that the buyer is pa)ing 
not so much for the animal as for the long line of breeding that 
he represents. Consult again the law of ancestral heredity in 
Chapter XII and understand fully why it is that a well-bred 




Fic;. 31. Common rough (butcher) steer, $5.80 per hundredweight (1910) ; 
usual price, )^4.2 5 per hundredweight 

After Mumford 

male, if only a few weeks old, is worth many times his ordinary 
market value and infinitely more than any scrub, no matter what 
his size, color, or other quality, which, like beauty, is in his case 
only " skin deep." 

Herd improvement and breed improvement. Farmers are far 
more apt to practice crossing than grading, though it is vastly 
more expensive, and, as commonly practiced, leads to nothing, for 



SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 193 

reasons well understood by the student. I attribute this failure 
to our universal desire to experiment in something striking. 

If crossing has any value, it is not to improve the herd of a 
farmer, but to afford material for improving the breed as a whole, 
and even this is a long, tedious, and expensive undertaking 
because of the operation of Mendel's law. Farmers who have 
tried it will say that crossing produces some good animals, but 
they are worthless as breeders. This is because of the principle 
just mentioned and the erratic behavior of characters dominant 
and recessive, as explained in Chapter XI. 

The practical farmer should have clearly in mind what he 
desires to do. If he very much wants to improve the breed as 
a whole, then well and good. All breeds need it, but he may 
as well understand that he has undertaken a Herculean task 
that will take much time and no little money. 

Most men are rightly after hej'd improvement merely ; that 
is, to bring into their own herds the most they can afford of 
the best that has already been accomplished in improvement. 
Now the least that such a man can afford to do is to buy a sire 
of the desired breed and begin at once to improve his own herd. 
Then later he can improve the breed, if he is able. 

Rational improvement. The rational procedure for the man 
who would improve his live stock is to secure a well-bred young 
male of the breed he prefers and " grade up," beginning with 
the females he has on hand, or such other common stock as can 
be bought on reasonable terms. Let him then raise several 
generations of grades, and later, if inclination offer and money 
permit, he can put in a few pure-bred females with his high 
grades and begin the production of a pure-bred herd ; or he 
may go on with high grades indefinitely, well knowing that_/<?r 
market purposes the high grade is as good as the full blood. 

Starting in this way he will have several substantial advan- 
tages, which may be enumerated as follows : ( i ) he will start 
cheaply ; (2) he will produce relatively large numbers, making 
rigid selection possible ; (3) he will discover the special breed 



194 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



characters quickl}-, as the)- will stand boldly uul at once in the 
grade stuff ; (4) he will gain much valuable experience with 
the breed in case he afterward desires to breed it j^ure. 

Choosing the breed. No question is more common than this : 
What is the best breed ? The only answer is that there is no 
best breed. Of course, one should not choose Percheron horses 




2. rrimc steer, 5S.70 per hundred\veij;ht (1910) 
After Mumford 

for carriage purposes nor Jersey cattle for beef. Thus, in a 
general way, the farmer should be informed about the breeds 
before he begins. This is not the time nor the place to dis- 
cuss this question at length, but he can get this information 
from such books as Professor Plumb's,^ and he cannot afford 
to decide so important a question as choosing a breed without 
giving some time to its study, because it is expensive both in 
time and money to make a change. 

' " 'I'yjjes and Hreeds of I'"arni .\nimals." 



SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OE ANIMALS 195 

Above all, he should not choose it suddenly or impulsively, 
as do some, when overimpressed with a particularly striking dis- 
play at the fair. The matter of the breed should be seriously 
studied, for once chosen it should not, under any ordinary cir- 
cumstances, be changed for another. To do that is to so mix 
the breeds together as to make a jumble which is next to 
worthless for practical purposes, giving rise as it does to all 
sorts of troublesome and unexpected reversions, for Mendel's 
law is always operative in such cases. 

Breed differences slight. As between the different breeds 
that are bred for the same purpose, the practical differences 
are slight and well within the personal factor of choice. For 
example, the four great beef breeds — Shocthorn, Hereford, 
Angus, and Galloway — were developed in as many different 
localities, and all in the hands of excellent stockmen. As 
with adherence to a political party or to a particular religious 
faith, an individual generally prefers the one with which he 
was brought up. 

Many a man says, " I will not have horns." Then his choice 
is limited to Galloway and Angus. But he says, "' I don't like 
black cattle." Very well ; then he will have to get the Polled 
Durham. Then he may say, " I don't like roans." Then noth- 
ing is left for him but to make a breed of his own, with the 
probability that he will be dead and forgotten long before the 
feat is accomplished, for we cannot quickly build a breed to 
specification, as we can a house. 

After the breed is chosen the breeder should become familiar 
with its " points " and also with the market requirements of the 
animals he proposes to produce. 

To facilitate this study by the young I have added an Appen- 
dix, which gives sample scales of points both for pure-bred and 
for market animals. It is impossible to cover all breeds in a 
book of this size, but enough is given to afford exercise in stock 
judging, which is one of the most valuable accomplishments of 
the farmer. 



196 



DOMES llLATKl) ANIMALS AM) PLANTS 



It will be seen upon careful study that some of these points 
are based upon utility, while others aim at mere looks, often 
covering- jxiints that, from the standjDoint of utility, are trifling. 
Now we keep cows, for example, for milk and butter, and those 
that can make the most for a given amount of feed are the 
best cows, quite independent of tlie length of the tail or the 
color of the tongue. Meat aninials gt-neralh' are xaluable in 




l''u;. 33. I'linie baby beef, C^S.OO per luiiHbedwei|;lu (1910) 
After Mumforil 

proportion to llie amount and qualil\ of the meat thev can 
make, and horses for their service at labor or upon the road. 
In pure breeding a great variety of minor matters are bound 
to enter in, and this fact constitutes one of its difficulties, but 
practical imi^rovement of the mass of farm animals should 
proceed upon utilit\- standards. 

Market classes and grades. lu)r animals that are shipped 
largely to the open market, like beef cattle, sheep, pigs, and 



SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMALS 197 

even horses, definite classes and grades ^ have long since been 
established. There are now no less than seven classes and 
forty-eight grades of market cattle, eight classes and twenty- 
seven grades of swine, eleven classes and twenty-one subclasses 
of horses, and seven classes and forty grades of sheep, a few 
of which arc shown in illustrations accompanying this chapter 
(Figs, 27-33). The value of these different grades varies of 
course at different times, but relatively the upper grades are 
out of all proportion with the lower. A careful study of these 
relative values will convince the student of what can be done 
by breeding. 

Knowledge of market requirements needful. It is important 
that the stockman have pretty definite knowledge of market 
requirements, because they are the standard by which his ani- 
mals must be sold and by which he will be paid. Want of this 
information is the cause of thousands of " unclassed " ^ animals 
upon the market. It is hardly necessary to remark that such 
animals make the owners little or no money. If, on the other 
hand, the owner knows in advance what the market will demand, 
he can shape his ideals and selections accordingly and thereby 
produce what the buyer really wants. Here is where accurate 
knowledge and intelligence are necessary to the best success 
in the live-stock business. 

Exercise. Make a careful study of Chapter XVII, Part II, and get 
practice in stock judging, as outlined in the Appendix. 

Reference. The Breeders'' Gazette, which ought to be regularly taken 
by the school. 

1 For market classes and grades of cattle sec Jhillclin yS, Experiment 
Station, University of Illinois; for those of swine, see Biittetin gj ; for horses, 
see Bulletin 122 ; and for sheep, Bulletin i2g. Professor Mumford, head of 
the department of Animal Husbandry, began this important series of publica- 
tions with the bulletin on cattle, which was followed by the others mentioned, 
prepared respectively by his associates. Professor Dietrich, Mr. Obrecht, and 
Mr. Coffey. In all cases the material was prepared in the stockyards, then 
submitted to the best experts, and may be considered as authentic. 

^ An unclassed animal is one that does not fall into any of the recognized 
desirable classes. Such animals make their way into the lower grades, and, 
as the supply always exceeds the demand, go for an extremely low price. 



CHArriK \\i 

SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF IM ANVS 

Improvoniont by soUvtion Cn^iisinsi to punJiKV i\c\v varieties Application 

of Mondols law iii onvssiiig • Separation ot the ilesiied eharaeter • Behavior 

of the rcvx^ssive • Behavior of the doiniiiant When n\vMV than two eharaelers 

are iiwolved ■ Svstenis ot plantinj; • Kivouls 

The whole quosiioii ot" pi-aoiieal moihoils ot" plain iiuproxo- 
moiit rests on an eniitely dit'teient Kisis than that ol" aiutnals. 
The evolutionary prineiples invi^lved aie ideiuieal. Init the eeo- 
noinie eonditions are ditYereiu. iuiieed ahuv^si (Opposite. 

Animals are relatively tew in number and eostlv both in bleed- 
ing ai\d in maintenanee. IMants, on the other haiul. are eheap, 
and the numbers ma\ easih run into the ihousaiuls. all ol" whieh 
wan-ants methods in jilant improxemeiu thai would be eiuiielv 
impraetieable with animals. 

Improvement by selection. Plaius. like animals, an^ subjeet 
to improvement b\ the ordinarv methods ot seleetion ; indeed, 
mueh improvement is elleeted in that wa\ . I'armeis keep up 
the quality of eorn bv seleetinj;' for seed the oeeasiiMial superior 
ear. The best wheal is ehi^sen tor seed and e.uefulh sereened 
of inferior kernels. In this i;eiuMal \\a\ we are ei>nstantlv 
praetieing' seleetion. 

A new method o\ inereasiui; \ ieUl of corn eonsisis in planting;' 
seleeted ears, eaeh in seiwrate rows, eaiefulh harvesliui; eaeh 
row separately . Thmigh the ears ma\ ha\e UH^ked iilentieal. the 
crop will vary wreath . Ihal from some ears will be neaih unitonn 
as to size and eharaeter oi ear, while th.u from others will be 
exceeding'lv uneven, with main nubbins and inft-rior imis. i"he 
yield, too. will varv greatb. often lunninL; more than two to owe 
in fawn' of certain ears, though lhe\ bore no \isible iiulie.ition 



SYSIKMAIH; IMI'kf)VKMKV]' r^i I'l.ANTS 199 

of inherently Huperjr^r fx>wer». Thi.H exfxrriment i.s no easily 
rcfx:ated that it is r«;^>mmended for the student, and further 
data are h;irdly neecHHary in the text (scjt fable, p, 204;, 

'ihis method i.s akin U) that employed for the increa.se of sugar 
in the sugar fxret. When the Germans a.>mmenced the improve- 
ment of this crop, the sugar cont<;nt was low, running from 4 t^> 
6 per cent, while now whole fields run 1 5 per cent and occnauma] 
single f>eets are found as high as 25 per cent, 'i'his improve- 
ment has been effected in the following way. 

Many promising \h:c±h nut analyzed for sugar content and 
only the high(rst are s<rlecU;d for planting. 'J'he same prr>cess 
is r(!p(;aUfl lor two or three generations, the best individuals 
always b(;if)g seleded as " mother lx;ets," The s<'ed from the 
last selection is " multiplied " in the ofx;n field by planting with- 
r^ut selection, simply to secure commercial quantities. Thus 
th(t f;ommercial sca'.(\, while not immediately descended from 
selected beets, is but one or two generations removed from a 
highly iielecU:d parentage. 

Crossing to produce new varieties, liy the methods aFx^ve 
mentioned any strain ox variety may be greatly improved, but 
by the method of crossing we may bring t^^gether absolutely new 
combinations of characters and thereby prrxluce new varieties, 
s^)me of which are certain to b(,' mf>re useful than the old. 

The reasons which practically rule out crossing as a means 
of itriprovetricnt in animals, except in rarest ca.ses, do not apply 
with much force to plants, because we can produce them in such 
enormous numbers and they are relatively so cheap that we can 
adot'l to throw away the most ol tdcrri for the sake of getting 
llic icw or even t.fie one that is liseluh 

Application of Mendel's law in crossing, i he confusing ele- 
ment in crossing is the behavior of dominant and recessive 
characters when suddenly brought together in new combinations. 
Reference; to the chapter on Mendel's law will refresh the point 
that characters combine in d(;finite proportions, but that some 
are niu( h more a[;fjarent than others which arc easily obscured, 



200 DOMKSrUA IKD ANIMALS AND PLAN IS 

and whicli thorotoro may go on hidden tor a time, onlv to sud- 
denly appear when tlie overshadowiui; dominant, tor anv reason, 
is absent. 

Separation of the desired character. The separation of the 
desired eharaeter from its entanglements with tnhers is some- 
times easily effeeted, but more often with great diffieultw espe- 
eiallv when dominant undesirable eharaeters are invohed. As 
an example of easy separation take the following theoretical 
case : Suppose we cross the colors black antl white. Under 
Mendel's law we shall have offspring of tiie cross as follows : 
^2 + 2 hi' + :i '-. in which /'- is pure black, w- pure white, "and 
2 bii.' is mixed, lilack and white. In this ixuticular case, there- 
fore, we shall find the offspring of three distinct colors, all of 
which are easily separable, one from the other. 

In the vast majority of cases. howcNcr, the characters do not 
blend in this way, so that the middle term does not stand out 
distincth- by itself. C^ne of the characters generally overshadows, 
that is to say, is dominant over, the other, making it difficult, if 
not impossible, to separate by inspection the members of the 
middle term from the pure dominants ; that is, to determine 
from a mixed population of offspring, arising from a crossed 
parentage, which ones are inue dominants and which are 
mixed, dominant, and recessive. 

Behavior of the recessive. It will be remembered that reces- 
sive characters appear unassociated with the dominant in 
one fourth of all crossbred individuals, after the formula 
D'^+2Dr+)^, in which D stands for dominant and /■ for 
recessive. For this reason it is comparati\el\' eas\- to proceed 
when the character desired is recessive, because these individ- 
uals that seem to be recessi\e are really what they seem, pure 
recessive, and will breed pure. 

Behavior of the dominant. It is not so easy, however, with 
the dominant, when that happens to be the character in whose 
improvement we are interested. Because it is dominant it will 
appear not in one fourth but in three fourths of the offsj)ring ; 



SYSIKMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF PLyWTS 20 1 

that is, vvc are unable to discriminate between the pure ly^ and 
the 2 l)r with its unnoticeable recessive, r. How, now, shall 
these be separated ? 

It is a long and difficult process. The only procedure is to 
plant the seeds, separately if possible. Those that are pure 
dominants will of course produce only dominants, while those 
that are mixed will produce both kinds ; that is, among these 
no recessive will appear. In self-fertilizing species we can 
quickly separate the pure dominant .strains, but when it is neces- 
sary to resort to cross fertilization, either natural or artificial, it 
is evident that the work is still more difficult. Under such circum- 
stances the only way is to proceed at random until a strain 
appears that produces no recessives, when it may be confidently 
assumed that the parents were both pure dominants and that 
the separation has been effected. 

When more than two characters are involved. It is sufficiently 
difficult to separate two characters, one of which is dominant. 
Manifestly, it is still more difficult to effect separations when 
three or more characters are involved, especially if we are con- 
cerned with all of them. 

Of course, in practical improvement we neglect all characters 
that do not concern us, whether they are dominant or recessive ; 
but, on the other hand, it is seldom that we are concerned with 
so simi:)le a problem as the separation of a single character from 
its recessive or dominant associations. When our problem is 
to separate two or three such characters from their hereditary 
entiinglements, the job becomes akin to hunting for the tradi- 
tional " needle in a haystack," because the combinations are 
exceedingly complicated ; for we remember that the individuals 
which are recessive as to one character may be dominant or 
mixed as to others.^ The only way, however, is to run it down 

1 This is why, if Jerseys and Holstein-Friesians should be crossed, some of 
the offspring would be rich in certain Jersey characters and others in other 
characters, either Jersey or IIolstein-Friesian ; but under the law of chance not 
once in a million times, or more perhaps, would a single animal be pure Jersey 
with reference to all the Jersey characters. Besides this, it is more than likely 



202 DOMES'l'lCATKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

patiently by dealing with relatively large numbers, always 
remembering that recessives when evident are always pure, at 
least as far as their own dominants are concerned. 

Systems of planting. In order to make safe and certain 
progress in improNcmcnt of plants, definite systems of planting 
must be observed. Two systems arc in vogue, — the plot system 
and the row system. Each has its advocates, and each has its 
advantages for certain purposes. 

The plot system is the older. In this system the seeds of a 
given selection are planted together in a small plot of ground, 
which is labeled and numbered. In the row system each selec- 
tion is planted in a separate row, which is also labeled and 
numbered. 

Whichever system is adopted, adequate methods of number- 
ing and recording not ohIn' the ancestry of the planting but also 
the progeny or crop must be devised and rigidly adhered to ; 
indeed, much of the success of improvement in plants, which 
necessarily run into large numbers, is dependent upon the skill 
and faithfulness of the record keeper. 

Records. The exact form of the record will of course depend 
upon the particular plants and characters involved, and to some 
extent upon the system of planting adopted, whether in plots 
or in rows. For simple operations the student can devise his 
own system of records, and for more complicated cases he is 
referred to '" Principles of Breeding," pp. 644-650, where com- 
plete illustrations are given of the method of record keeping in 
the wheat-breeding experiments at Minnesota, where the plot 
system is used, and in the corn-breeding work at Illinois, where 
the row system is in use. 

The general principle is that every plot or row be designated 
by number, that every seed selection have also its serial number, 
and that full descriptions be recorded of all plantings. A little 

that some of the Jersey and some of the IIolstein-Kriesian characters would 
blend, making anything like a pure Jersey or IIolstcin-Friesian forever after- 
ward impossible. 



SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTS 203 

study will enable us to put much meaning into these numbers. 
For example, suppose 20 ears of corn are to be planted. F"or 
the first year of an experiment, instead of numbering them from 
I to 20 it is better to number them from loi to 120, next year 
from 201 to 220, and so on, so that the figure in the hundreds' 
place denotes the number of generations of improvement. Thus, 
if an ear should have the number 614, we know at once that it 
represents the sixth generation of improvement. In general, the 
following will be sufficient for the record of simple breading 
operations : (i) number of seed ; (2) description ; (3) number of 
plot or row in which it is planted ; (4) number of parent stock, — 
one number if fertilization is left open as in corn or closed as in 
wheat, but if crossed by hand, then two numbers will be needed, 
one for the male and one for the female parent. 

With this information and these few general directions the 
student is amply able to begin experiments in plant improve- 
ment, and it is the earnest hope of the author that young people 
may quite generally appreciate the opportunity for improvement 
in seed and plant and flower, that still stands waiting the hand 
of the breeder. It is a fascinating field into which the student 
is advised, even urged, to enter, — cautiously at first, taking one 
or two simple things, remembering always that such work runs 
rapidly into numbers ; then, as experience is gained, he may 
range farther afield. 

It is no stretch of the imagination nor is it a chimerical dream 
to say that the students of our better schools, aided by their 
teachers, can, if they will, do more to further improve many of 
our cultivated plants than can the farmers themselves. It is well 
within their powers. They have the time and can acquire the 
skill, — things which are difficult to secure to the man that is 
busy in active commercial life. 

As an example of what can be done in the improvement of a 
single character, I introduce the following table, which exhibits 
the results of ten years of selection for high and low oil of corn 
carried on by Dr. C. G. Hopkins of the University of Illinois. 



>o4 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



In these experiments the planting was always made from the 
ears that contained the highest and lowest obtainable proportions 
of oil respectively. The selection may be roughly based on the 
size of the germ, the largest germs having the most oil. 

Tkx Generations of Breeding Corn for Increase and 
Decrease of Oil 





High-oil plot, 
average per cent oil 


Low-oil plot, 
average per cent oil 


Difference 
between 




In seed 
planted 


In crop 
harvested 


In seed 
planted 


In crop 
harvested 


crops, 
per cent 


1896 




4.70 




4.70 


.00 


1897 


5-39 


473 


403 


4.06 


.67 


1898 


5.20 


5-15 


3-65 


3-99 


1. 16 


1899 


6.15 


5-64 


3-47 


3.82 


1. 82 


1900 


6.30 


6.12 


3-33 


3-57 


-•55 


1901 


6.77 


6.09 


2-93 


3-43 


2.66 


1902 


6-95 


6.41 


3.00 


3.02 


3-39 


1903 


6.73 


6.50 


2.62 


2.97 


3-53 


1904 


7.16 


6.97 


2.80 


2.89 


4.08 


1905 


7-88 


7.29 


2.67 


2.58 


4.71 


1906 


7.86 


7-37 


2.20 


2.66 


4.71 



Exercises. Study and report upon any plant-breeding operations of the 
neighborhood, especially with reference to the following points: 'what im- 
provements are sought ; how seeds are selected, and on what points selection 
is based; how stored for the winter; how planted, and what records are kept. 

Plant in separate rows ten of the best ears of corn obtainable, describe 
and number each ear. and give the same number to the row in which it is 
planted. Then make a careful study of the crop, both as to yield and uni- 
formity, using the statistical methods for determining variability. 

Plant separately from the tips, the middle, and the butts of the same ears 
of corn. Next year select a set in the same way from the respective crops, 
and continue the experiment for a series of years in order to get the cumu- 
lative effect of the late small kernels at the tip as compared with the early 
and large kernels of the base. Do not look for too much difference the 
first year. 

Bring to the school garden any field crop or garden plant in which there 
is general interest, and begin work, looking to its improvement. 



PART II 

THE ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED RACES 

Part II deals with the material out of which domesticated 
species and varieties have been made. It aims to sketch briefly, 
as far as it is known, the history of domestication and to indicate 
as well as may be done at the present time the specific wild race 
to which each domesticated form is supposed to trace when run 
back to its wild progenitors. The limitations of space forbid 
anything more than the briefest outline, but to further assist the 
student the text is supplied with references to fuller sources of 
information. 

The attempt to trace the history of domesticated animals and 
plants back to their primitive forms is beset with many difficulties. 
First of all, the domesticated races have been substantially altered 
during their long removal from the wild, subject primarily to 
man's selection ; and again, in the centuries that have elapsed 
since domestication, many a wild race has become extinct, and 
because of this we may often be deceived as to the exact par- 
entage and be inclined to credit it to some near relative that 
has persisted ; still again, wild races themselves change without 
man's interference, and for all these reasons this attempt to 
assign definite sources of our domesticated races must be 
regarded as more or less approximate in its conclusions. 

The student will be struck with the fact that most of our 
animals and plants trace to Old-World forms. This is not 
necessarily because the New World was less prolific in valuable 
material, but rather because civilization, as we know it at least, 
commenced in Asia and worked westward. In this way much 
valuable material indigenous to the American continent was 

205 



2o6 DOMI'.SI'IC A ll'.l) ANIMALS WD I'LWTS 



m'^lrilcd lor 11(1 dtlici UMSon tluin lliis, ii.imcK, lli:it loo ;;oo(| 
a stall was aln-a(l\ made willi ()l(l\\'oil(l iii.ilciiai; and oidy 
wlicic soiucliiiii;', disliiulK licllci was disco\rird licii', as corn 
,[\u\ llic liiikc\, well' AiiHiKaii races utilizi'd, fxicpl iiii^ only 
wlun ( >ld W Olid lonns lailcd, as llicy ilid with tin- ^lapi- and 
I he ;^;oosrl)i'l l'\', 

I 111' malciial ol this pari ma\' lu' used in lliicc \\a\s : as ti-\t, to 
lollow appi opi iaic ii)a|)lfi s in I'ait 1 as indiialcd ; as rcUTi'iU'i' 
inaltci , to l)(.' taki'ii in roniK'ition w illi i'ail 1 ; oi .is iiuk'pciuli.'nL 
niallfi . 



(■iiAi''ri:K XVII 

ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

1 )()m(.'slic;iU-(l iii;iiiimal.s • 'I'lir doj;' • 'I'hc lioi'si' ■ 'I'lu- ass ■ 'I'Ir- ox • 'IMu- sheep • 

'J'he t;uat • The pig • Ihe cat • Domesticated jjiids • The hen • I'he goose • 'l"he 

duck • The turkey • The peacock • The swan • The guinea fowl • Additional 

races and semidomestication • Unwelcome domestication 

As the subjccl matter of Part II constitutes an application of 
the i)rinciples discussed in the early chapters, we are ready at 
once to proceed, without special introduction, to the detailed study 
oi the origin of special races of domesticated animals. 



1 )()Mi':s'i'i(A'ii:i) Mammals 

The dog {Canis familiaris). ( )f all the wild animals that have 
been brought inlo (he service of man, some h)rm of dog was 
undoubtedly the lirst, for 
reasons brought out in (he 
chap(er, I low Animals came 
to be 1 )omesticalt'd. Mis 
exact origin is of course- un 
known, but he has numerous 
wild relatives in all parts of 
the world, not only within 
historic times btit even to 
the present day. 'Jhe neai" 
est of these are the wolf and 
thi' jackal in (heir various 
forms, l)o(h of whiih are said (o breed freely with the domes- 
tic dog uj)on opi)ortuni(y, and both of which, more especially 
the wolf, have been fre(|uently domesticated. The Indian, for 
example, ke[)t numerous "dogs," mostly developed from the 

207 




I'k;. j.j. Thi- I nllic, one ol liic finest 
domesticated types 



2oS 



POMKSrU- A ri-P \MM\1S \\P V\ WIS 



coyote ol (ho prairie aiul often with a dash oi blooil ot" the 
linilxM \Vi>h' to iiive eneriiA ami fenvilv (see l-ig. ,0. 

A \er\ cloi^hke wiUl animal is the i\^x. which. howcwM', 
is not conunonl\ re^auled as one o\ the inuucihate pioi^eni- 
tofs o\ the conunon doj; on account ot" structural ililYerences 
in the skull ami the nuMV sigtiiiicant fact that the pupil of 




1'"k;. 35. 'l"lu- liingo, o\ wild di^g of Avistr.ilia ; mimum (hi.- doiuostiv.- do:; ili.ui 
any otlior oxi.siing wild species 

his e\e is elliptical, whereas it is louiul in the wolf, the jaik.il, 
and the doj;. 

These slight structural differences, howexer. iwv counting for 
less than foiineilv in tracinj; iclalionships, ami the iaci ihal cer- 
tain South .Xnieiican wol\ es .ire \im\ foxlike, .is .ire some o{ cnir 
dogs, leads us to be careful in ilen\ inj; the fox c\cn icim>te 
connectiiui with our domesticated i-aces. 



OI'IMN ()l IK;Mi:S'/ K AIM) ANIMALS 



2(jfj 



Hn; w\\(\ Jinirnal ticun-Ht, to Jfic fJornfrsfir; rJo;^ hCA-.uiH \/> U; the 
din^o of AuH>.r;ili;i, It rnij^ht U; callc/J the wild rjo^ of that 
inland. Whether Iforn hfe in a reHtrJct<xJ area and with a simple 
faun/i it haji f)ad Ichh opfx^rtunity U; cxcrc'm: and de-velop its 
wolfish inntinf tH than has its eousin of the continents, or whether 
the origin;il hUhM wm eswrntially more do^like, we do not Un(/w. 
We only know that the din^o is more like a dog than is any 
other wild animal of the present time, and that he is very like 
certain forms of the domestic species. 

We know, U>o, that th(! line between the dr>g and the wolf is 
not distinctly dr?iwn ; that is Ut nay, then: is more difference 
betwe<.'n different breeds of the domestic dog than there is bt> 
tween cerUiin fjreeds and the wolf of the wilds. On this fx^int 
compare the comrrion dogs ;ih we know them with the Siberian 
wolfhound and witfi llie timber wolf. 

They all possess u (ommon instinct to hiint and a common 
ability to trail by the scent.' 'J rue, a few breeds, like the p^xxJIe 
and the dachshund, fiave lost the hunting instinct, having fxren 
developed as p(rts, but in others it has fxren well preserved. 'Ihe 
bulldog is more savage and mont c^;urageous than any wolf ever 
known, 'ihe mastiff does not hunt, but he watf.hes, which is 
essentially the sanje thing. The .St, liernard, which is a gentle 
dog, displays his native instinct in hunting men for rescue.''* 

The bloodhound has a keener sc(rnt and greaU;r ability y> 
follr>w a trail than has any wolf, but he has lost the savage part 
of the hunting instinct; for, cr^ntrary to popiilar f>elief, he is 
(juite satisfied to sniff his fjuarry at the end of the trail.^' 

'I'he setter and the pointer have lost their ability to trail, but 
preserve their old hunting instinct, so, while obliged to depend 
upor) sight to discover the fjuarry, tl)f;y are still most (excellent 

' CurioijHly enough, lh«: " tjark " whicli in charactcrintic of the fJomcHtic 
i\(>H and largely ahHcnt in the wild i» readily acquired upon dofnentication, but 
abandoned by the Harn(t individual upon aHHurning the feral Mlatc. 

^ Read the Htory of " I'arry" of St, I'ernard. 

" The term "bloodhound" u\i:-Any,lilo(i(leil ux hiyjilyhreil. It ban no reference to 
ferocity, for the bloodhound in the gcntleMt of all dogs, not excepting the poodle. 



2IO l)()Mi:SIIC.\ I i:i) ANIMAI.S AM) I'LAN IS 

hunters. 'I'lu' hunting' liound still iftains tin- original instinct 
Id hunt in p.uks liki' thi- wolf, an instiiul uhiih, in the colHo, 
has been dcx t'lopcd into hcKhni;.' 

Ihrsr habits arc not hir from those of the wolf of the woods. 
This skiHful hunter does not charge his |)i"e\', but he hunts 
.systeniatiealh', sin};Iv, <'r in paeks. y\ man bi'ini; stah^ed by 




I'K;. 5(). rn/A-wiiuiin;; gri-at I );iiK's, tlic largest ot all dogs. Wiiuli-rhournc 
ki'iiiu'ls, Wasliingtoii, !).('. 

woKi's would l)e loni; unaware ol his peiik lli- mi^ht see a 
sin;4le woU lunniuL; oil to the sick' at a eonsicK-rabk- distance, 
apparently disappeai ini;' in the buslu-s. Tresentl)' he mi,L;ht see 
another, jx-rhaps following;, perhaps in anotlu-r (|uaitei\ If new 
to tlu- woods, he mi^ht think that woKes wen- plenty but all 
great cowaids, while if lu- kiu'w iheii' habits in hunting;, hv would 

' Read " l!()l), .Sdu 1)1 lialllf," in ihis lomu'ciion. 



ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 21 1 

know that the whole paek was upon his trail, not following 
straight but circling round him in a gradually narrowing and 
ultimately fatal spiral ; for, gaining confidence with exertion and 
whetted hunger, the pack will ultimately make the charge at a 
favorable moment after the quarry is at bay and shows the first 
evidence of defenselessness. This is the natural method of the 
shrewdest and most cowardly hunter the forest of nature ever 
produced, and it is perfectly natural that such an animal should 
have been not once but many times domesticated. Thus came 
the dog to dwell among us. 

The horse (Equus caballus). llnlike the dog, the horse has no 
near relative in the wikl ; that is to say, there is no existing wild 
species that, by any stretch of the imagination, could be regarded 
as the direct progenitor of the modern horse, or from which the 
horse could by any jjossibility be developed.' If all the dogs of 
the world should disappear, they could be reproduced from the 
wild ; but if the domestic horse should disappear, he could nc^t be 
restored from any other existing species. 

While the immediate progenitor of the horse is, and likely 
has been for a long time, extinct, yet two significant facts re- 
main. The first is, that he was almost certainly developed from 
some primitive stock in or near the semiarid plains of Central 
Asia, having wolves for his nearest neighbors and principal 
enemies. The other fact is equally significant ; namely, that 
while the immediate progenitor is lost, we really know more of 
the ancestry and evolution of the horse than of any other animal 
domesticated or wild, living or extinct.'-^ 

1 Objection might be made to this statement on account of the Tarpan, or 
so-called wild horse, which has been known on the steppes of Tartary and 
eastward to Central Asia certainly since the time of Pallas (1760), though it is 
now confined to the more remote regions of the interior. These animals are 
true horses ; and if they are aboriginal stock, they are to be regarded as the 
real progenitor of our domesticated race. It is more than likely, however, that 
they are feral rather than truly wild. 

^ I'"or a more extended account of the origin of the horse and his evolution 
upward, see " I'rinciples of Breeding," pp. 298-305. 




Imc. TiJ. I'lcliisldi u Ii\c Idc.l lioisi' irsl(iri-(l, .md c .miimicil in si/i" willi tlic 
lu.ul ol ilir inoili-in horse. AUi.1 C).'5boin 



ORIGIN 01'' DOMESTICATKI) ANIMALS 213 

The best of evidence exists to show that the modern horse 
has developed from a diminutive five-toed ancestor not much 
larger than a jack rabbit. Fig. 37 shows this animal restored, 
and compared in size with the head of the common horse. The 
story is too long to be recited here, but should be read in col- 
lateral literature. Space permits us to note only the significant 
fact that actual relics have been found in western North America, 
and are still in existence, showing the entire evolution of the 
horse from the little five-toed animal just mctitioned, up through 
the forms with three toes, to the present form with one, the so- 
called "splint bones" at the side being all that is left of the 
original digits II and IV, all traces of Nos. I and V having 
long since disappeared. Along with this reduction in the number 
of toes has gone a gradual increase in the size of the body and 
a hardening of the teeth till the readaptation was complete from 
a small and probably timid animal living on soft feed and low 
ground to the swiftest of all animals, of good size, subsisting on 
upland grasses and prairies and fitted for locomotion on hard land. 

More than to any one else we are indebted for this history to 
I'rofessor 11, l\ Osborn of the American Museum of Natural 
History, New York, who is now comi)leting his material for an 
almost perfect hislor\' of the iiorse, from iIk' diminutive ancestor 
down, or rather up, to the modern domesticated form, with many 
distinct types between, but merging into each other gradually 
and distinguished by differences almost imperceptible. Differ- 
ing though they do from the modern horse, these many forms 
are clearly horselike, and, moreover, they are connected by un- 
mistakable links that bind them all together as one of the 
greatest evolutionary achievenienls of the earth. 

As has been intimated, this history has been largely traced 
through fossil remains found in western America, especially in 
Wyoming. Kuroj)e affords evidences of the same evolutionary 
processes, and without a doubt the same course of development 
could be traced in Asia, as will likely one day be done, if exten- 
sive explorations are made in that country. 



214 



DOMESTICATED AXIMALS AND PLANTS 



We know that several horselikc forms developed in South 
America, but that all perished for one cause or another, one at 
least from soft teeth. It is exceedingly remarkable that while 
the North American horse progressed almost up to the modern 



Head 



Fore Foot 



Hind Foot 



Teeth 




OneToe. 

Splints of 

2nd and 4th 

digits 



OneToe 

Splints of 

2nd and 4th 

digits 



Protohippus 



Mesohippus 



Protorohippus 



Hjnrac other ium 
(Eohippus) 



Three Toes 

Side toes 

not touching 

the ground 



I 



Three Toes 

Side toes 

not touching 

the ground 




Long- 
Crowned, 
Cement- 
covered 



Hj Three Toes 

II Side toes 

/y\ touching the 

ground; 

Splint o/ 5th digit 



Three Toes 

Side toes 

touching the 

ground 



Four Toes 



Short- 
Crowned, 
without 
Cement 



Four Toes 
Splint of 
1st digit 



Three Toes 
Splint of 
5th digit 



Fig. 38. Comparative drawings of skulls, feet, and teeth of prehistoric horses, 

showing evolutionary development. Reproduced, by permission, from "Origin 

and History of the Horse," by II. F. Osborn 

type,^ he became extinct for some reason, and, so far as we know, 
before he was ever domesticated. 

What caused this extinction here and yet preser\ed the 
Asiatic form till man came upon the earth we cannot, with our 
present knowledge, even conjecture; though it is known that the 



1 He had reached the size of the Shetland pony with three toes, only one 
of which rested firmly on the ground, digits II and IV being much like the 
"dew claws" (digits II and V) of pigs ; digits I and V being represented by 
"splints" (digits numbered I-V beginning on the inside). 



ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 215 

horse, while able to maintain himself against wolves in Asia, is 
not able to withstand the puma, which has exterminated the feral 
horses in certain localities of South America. 

All this, however, is but ancient history, and now we can only 
speculate upon what would have been our misfortune and our 
condition had the prehistoric horselike animal become extinct 
in Asia, as he did in the rest of the world, and we had been 
obliged to get on without the horse. ^ 

Since his domestication the horse has doubtless changed but 
little. He is larger, stronger, and swifter, but structurally he 
seems to have been for a long time a finished animal. Under 
domestication he has developed the trot, until with some breeds 
it is an instinctive gait. This is a great tribute to breeding, for 
the trot is not a natural gait with animals of the horse kind, 
except for a few steps between the canter and the walk. 

However early the domestication of the horse, — and it must 
have been very early, — its introduction into modern historic life 
is comparatively recent. For example, the Egyptian carvings 
and frescoes show nothing of the horse until after the close of 
the rule of the shepherd kings (1800 or 1900 b.c), when that 
country first came into contact with Assyria. In Xerxes' army 
even the Arabs were mounted upon camels. The Hebrews had 
no horses until about the time of Solomon and after their ac- 
quaintance with the Syrians. The earliest human records of the 
horse are the Assyrian sculptures, where, curiously enough, the 
horseman is accompanied by an attendant who leads the horse, 
an attention which would be greatly scorned by his Cossack 
representative of to-day, as it would by any rider not the merest 
novice, showing that we have improved somewhat in horseman- 
ship since the old Assyrian days. 

The ass {Eguus hemionus and Equusasinus) . In eastern countries 
the ass has long been a favorite beast of burden, antedating the 
horse by many centuries. In our own country this animal has 

^ It will add to our appreciation of the horse if students will choose this 
topic for an occasional composition. 



2l6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

not been a favorite except in the form of the mule, which is 
half horse.^ 

Two distinct species of the truly wild ass are known, the 
Asiatic {E. hcmiojms) and the African {E. asimis). The for- 
mer range over the more arid regions of Syria, Persia, Tibet, 
Mongolia, and western India, and the latter is indigenous to 
Abyssinia and the highlands of northeastern Africa generally. 

It is from this latter stock that the common ass of Europe 
and America is descended, through the early Egyptian domesti- 
cation. It is considered more than likely also, on account of 
their close resemblance, that the domesticated races of Asia trace 
to the same source rather than to the wild stock of their own 
country, at least so far as the historic regions of Palestine and 
the west are concerned, whose relations were from an early day 
much more intimate with the civilization of Eg)'pt than with 
the wild and remote Asiatic regions inhabited by E. hemiomis. 

Upon the whole, it cannot be said that the ass has profited 
much by domestication. Fitted by nature to exist under hard 
conditions, man has made the most of his natural faculties in 
this direction, and he has generally suffered neglect and abuse 
above that of any animal that has ever been domesticated, un- 
less it may be the Eskimo dog. Accordingly he is almost every- 
where a dull, spiritless creature, poorly fed and ill conditioned 
generally, — a walking advertisement of a hard life. 

All writers, however, both ancient and modern, agree as to 
the spirit, beauty, and fleetness of the wild ass, especially the 
African progenitor of the domesticated form. Bible history, too, 
teaches that the ass was not always regarded with the low esteem 
of the present day, but that in former times he was a general 
favorite in domestication as he was a common symbol among 

1 Strictly speaking, a "mule" is any hybrid or "cross" between distinct 
species. In common parlance, however, the term is limited to the offspring of 
the female horse and the male ass. The opposite or reciprocal cross between 
the female ass and the male horse is called the hinny. It does not differ 
materially from the mule, but is seldom seen because of the aversion to keeping 
the ass in numbers, as would be necessary to breed hinnies. 



ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 217 

Hebrew writers for swiftness and spirit in the wild. It appears 
that he has suffered by comparison with the horse, of which he 
is instinctively regarded as a sort of poor relation. The Spanish 
people, however, have continued in their esteem of this useful 
animal, and it is to them that we owe the excellent quality of 
our modern stock, particularly as regards size, spirit, and finish. 

It requires but the slightest contact with this peculiar relative 
of the horse to discover that anything like low spirits and inac- 
tivity are the result partly of poor feed and partly of an excessive 
suspicion of all new things and an exaggerated disposition not 
to run away like the horse, but to stop and investigate ; indeed, 
curiosity is one of his principal faculties. As to intellect, he is 
easily underrated, for he is fully the equal of the horse, his 
stupidity being apparent and not real, like that of the ox. 

The excessively long ears and large bone of the modern ass 
are the distinguishing features of the African stock, whereas the 
Asiatic has short ears, is lighter in limb, and so swift in action 
that it is said to be impossible for the hunter to run one of them 
down even with the best of mounts. 

In connection with the domesticated horse and ass another 
group of closely related wild animals must be mentioned, the 
zebra {Eguiis zebra) and the quagga {Eqiins qitagga). These 
strange horselike animals, in most respects nearer like the ass 
than the horse, exist in some three or four well-marked and 
more or less distinct races, all native to southern Africa. 

The true zebra is smaller (twelve to thirteen hands) ^ than 
either the horse or the ass, lives in the highlands, and is 
covered on both body and legs with a beautifully complete 
system of black stripes on a background of dirty white,^ The 

1 A " hand " is four inches, and is the universal unit for measuring the 
height of horses. This height is taken at the withers or shoulders, at what 
would be the highest point of the body when the animal is standing with his 
head down, as in grazing. 

2 Suggesting the reason for the ancient name '" hippotigris," — hippo \yiOX%€) 
andtigris (tiger), — a name similar in make-up to "camelopard" (camel leopard) 
for the giraffe. 



ji8 noMi:sricAri:n animals anh plan is 

quagga has shorter oars and wears nuMe hair upon the tail than 
does the zebra. He is also somewhat hea\ier in the ImhIv and 
the stripes are less distineth niarkeil. taclin^' out almost eom- 
pletelv into a dirtv white on the hinder and under parts of the 
body, exeept for a dark baek strijie running from the withers 
to the setting" on of the tail. The tiesh o( the (.|uagga has 




Fli".. ^i). riu w.iui Inill.ilo (it Asia ami Atiioa. Tliis is iho only true 

buffalo, though the name is often applied to both the American and the 

l-'.uropean bison 

long been esteemed bv the Hoers as food for ser\ants. that is, 
natives. 

In all of these tvpes and raees the zebra is timid in the wild 
and vieious in captivitw Aeeordingh- he has never been domesti- 
cated or even full\- tamed excejit to the extent seen in shows, anil 
to the further extent that individuals are sometimes" in-spanned " 
with mules by the African farmers, thus making up a i)art oi 
the team. 



ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 219 

The ox. Our domesticated cattle are of two distinct species : 
Bos tanrus, covering all European and American races and 
breeds ; and llus indiciis, the smaller, lighter-limljcd, and so- 
called sacred' or humped cattle of India, similar to the Galla 
cattle of Africa. 

Both of these species have been so long domesticated and 
the countries they inhabit are so densely populated that it is 
impossible to identify the original wild stock of either. There 
is, however, no lack of material from which they might have 
sprung, for their wild relatives are numerous and our only diffi- 
culty is in assigning exact relationships. 

These relationships, however, arc more easily traced for the 
Indian cattle than for the European and American breeds, 
because the vast and largely inaccessible mountain wildernesses 
of the Himalayan foothills afford a secure retreat and harbor 
for a number of truly wild races of the cattle kind, almost any 
one of which might have been the true progenitor of Bos indices?' 

Perhaps the most notable of these, as it is the largest, is the 
gaur {Bos gaimis), a thoroughly wild and untamed animal 
inhabiting the hills and inaccessible highlands of India, extend- 
ing as far eastward as Burma and the Malay Peninsula, where it 
is known as the sladong. This is a true wild ox of monstrous 
size, standing occasionally as high as eighteen hands, or six feet, 
in exceptional old males. His height is exaggerated by his 
exceedingly high withers, amounting to a hump, were it not that 
the elevation is prolonged into a ridge running well down the 

1 This is evidently another of the many erroneous but popular traditions. I 
am assured by the most reliable Hindus that these cattle are no more sacred 
than are any others ; indeed, that they are not, all things considered, so highly 
esteemed as is the buffalo. 

2 These Hindu cattle arc familiar to every boy that has attended the shows. 
They are smaller and more slender than our cattle, and their more suitable 
conformation and gentle disposition fit them so excellently for the road that 
they are freely used for purposes of travel in their own country. Ranging from 
a clear white to a dirty cream color, with their curious hump at the shoulders, 
they make a most striking appearance that would distinguish them from the 
common cattle of our own cpuntry, even to the most casual observer. 



2 20 



noMKsrkwrKP animus am^ im an rs 



Ixick. The v.vlor is brown. oUon uuvnv while. Iho liorns arc 
tmlv monstrous, being tKvasionallv. accordini; lo i;».Hxi authority, 
as long as tliirtv-nine inches oaeh. witli a Kis.il girth as high as 
nineteen inches. This animal is exceedingly wary, avoiding 
cultivatixl or open coiuitrv of anv kind, and. .is has Ixvn s^iid. 




Ku,. 40. rho gaur. or groat wild ox of the highlands of India 



is never domesticated. He is .1 true wild o\ in every partic- 
ular, as large, undoubtedh. as the /u>s ffrimii^ifius of Europe 
e\er was. 

The g-ayal. sometimes called mithan, is a semiilomesticated 
and near relative of the gaur, inhabiting the hillv lands of north- 
eastern India. It is smaller than the gaur, and. being lower at 
the withers and higher at the lunnp, stanels with his back nearly 
level. He runs wild in the more renu>tc districts, and is to be 



0I<K;J\ OI- nOMK.STK A'J Kb ANIMALS 



221 



rcgarrlcd as an intermediate between the fJomesticated and the 
wild cattle of the Indian type. 

The banteng, or native ox of Java, extending also well intr^ the 
( ontinent in the region of Burma, is a close relative of the gaur 
and the gayal, but nearer the common or domesticated form. It 
exists both domesticaU'd and wild. All these species have a 
much better of;fjortunity V) linger indefinitely in their natural 




1 I',. ,}). J :.!. J...., '.. ....'. ... 'A '1 ibcl 



State than had similar species in Kurope, because of the immense 
stretches of hills and unbroken wilderness lying along the base 
and up the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. Accordingly 
we are not surprised at being able to find here truly wild cattle. 
Still higher up in the highlands of Tibet, fourteen to twenty 
thousand feet above the sea, is the yak (Bos grunniens), that 
hardiest of all the cattle kind, delighting in the wildest hardships 
of that most forbidding country. lie is a true ox in all essential 
particulars, not vefy well endowed with vision but with the 



222 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

keenest scent. He can be domesticated and is employed as a 
beast of burden, but if unused for a little time, he becomes 
extremely wild and likely to escape on opportunity. In any 
event he steadily refuses to eat corn, confining himself to the 
hard and scanty grasses of his native plateaus. 

Asia affords still one more relative of the cattle kind, though 
a little more distant than these just enumerated. This is the 
wild buffalo (Bos bulnilus), the race to which the term " buffalo " 
properly belongs.^ These curious animals are about the size of 
the largest of our common cattle, of a dun or mouse color, nearly 
destitute of hair, with long, flattened, and corrugated horns curv- 
ing backward rather than forward, as in most of the cattle kind. 
The wild buffaloes are domesticated in both India and Burma, 
where they are highly esteemed for their milk, and where they 
are indispensable for labor in the rice fields and other lowlands '^ 
(see Fig. 39). 

Their love for water is proverbial, and whether domesticated 
or wild the heat of the day will generally find them comfortably 
submerged in any accessible water, with only the nostrils stick- 
ing out. Nothing can restrain them from seeking this protection 
against heat and insects in the middle of the day, and if the 
farmer is slow in detaching the plow or wagon, it makes very 
little difference with the buffalo after he is fairly headed for the 
stream or the pool. The buffalo is wild on the plains of the 
Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and along the foot of the Himalayas, 
besides having become feral in the forests of Burma and other 
regions in southeastern Asia. 

Besides these Asiatic species, closely related to our domestic 
cattle, we have the Galla ox, a humped race native to Africa and 
considered by Riitimeyer as closely related to the bantcng of 

1 The term is popularly but erroneously applied to the American bison, 
which is structurally as far removed from the true buffalo as are our common 
cattle. 

2 These useful animals have also made their way as domesticated beasts of 
labor over considerable portions of Asia Minor, Egypt, and Italy, and may be 
seen in most of our shows and zoological gardens of this country and Europe. 



ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 223 

Asia. Africa also possesses several distinct species of true 
buffalo, notably the cape buffalo of the south, — with horns much 
like those of the musk ox, — the Sierra Leone buffalo, and the 
small red or short-horned species of the western coast region. 

In extinct forms of large size Africa is peculiarly rich. If 
accounts may be believed, the horn cores of one specimen from 
Algeria measured no less than eleven feet and another from the 
cape fourteen feet. As they would be considerably larger when 
covered with their horny sheath, the spread of the horns and 
the size of these animals must have been truly prodigious. 



Fig. 42. Sir Donald, head of the largest herd of bisons in America 
Canadian National Park, Banff, Alberta 

It will be seen, therefore, that the domesticated cattle of both 
Asia and Africa have no lack of wild relatives both living and 
extinct, and the fact of their ultimate origin in the wild must be 
clear to the most casual student, — so clear that if the domes- 
ticated races should suddenly become extinct, they, or equally 
good successors, could be readily restored from the wild. 

However this may be in the western continent, all closely 
related species were extinct in America, if, indeed, they ever 
existed, long before its discovery by the white man. The bison 
{Bos americaiuis), popularly but erroneously called the buffalo, 
a close relative of the European bison {Bos bonassus), was the 



2 24 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

only native wild animal of the cattle kind known to America. 
This noble animal literally abounded on the western plains and 
has practically become extinct within the memory of men still 
young ; indeed the Union Pacific Railroad and its first contract 
with Buffalo Bill ^ practically sealed the death warrant of the 
finest wild animal on the western continent. 

This animal would surely have been domesticated and made 
into a useful servant, had we not already possessed our common 
cattle, making it unnecessar\' to begin over again ; just as we 
should have domesticated the prairie chicken except for the 
hen, and just as our forefathers did domesticate the wild tur- 
key 2 of the New England woods. 

The common cattle both of this country and Europe had an 
undoubted origin in one or more of the primitive races of the 
cattle kind that inhabited that country in the earliest times, 
descendants of which are now extinct, except as they have been 
preserved by accidental inclosure in the hunting parks of certain 
estates in England. In prehistoric ages the whole of Europe 
except Ireland was ranged over by an immense wild animal of 
the cattle kind, known to science as B. priinigcmis, or first ox. 

Remains of this animal are found in brick clays and peat 
bogs in many places, from the skulls of which it is inferred that 
the spread of horns must have been at least four feet. Some of 
these skulls are pierced by flint arrowheads, showing that they 
were hunted probably for food as far back as the paleolithic or 
oldest stone age. 

This animal or its immediate descendants persisted in the 
forests of Central Europe until comparatively recent times. It 

1 Colonel William F. Cody, a noted hunter and Indian scout, took the con- 
tract to supply the workmen with buffalo meat during the construction of this 
road. Thus the bison literally gave his life for the first transcontinental rail- 
road. The great numbers killed under this contract (69 in one day and 4862 
in one year) earned for Mr. Cody the name of Buffalo Bill, a name he will 
carry through life, and under which he organized and conducted his famous 
Wild West Show, exhibiting, as this is written, but a few miles away. 

2 See section on the turkey. 



ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 225 

was hunted by Caesar and his followers under the name of 
aurochs, or urus, as it was called by Charlemagne in the ninth 
century. (It was certainly encountered by the first crusaders 
and is known to have lingered in the neighborhood of Worms 
as late as the twelfth century.) 

This was the great European wild ox, and it is from him that 
all our larger breeds of common cattle are universally supposed 
to have descended. Contemporaneous with him one or more 
smaller and more slender races ^ inhabited the same regions, 
especially toward the west. It is from these latter that the Jersey 
and its nearest relative, the Guernsey, are supposed to have 
descended, an assumption resting, of course, upon structural 
considerations rather than upon direct historic evidence. 

A curious circumstance connects these ancient times with the 
living present. There are now in the hunting parks of several 
of the great estates of England herds of wild white cattle, notably 
those at Chillingham in southern Scotland and Chartley and 
Cadzow in northern England. 

These herds are the direct descendants of the original wild 
cattle confined in these parks along with other game some eight 
or nine hundred years ago and perhaps longer ; indeed, authentic 
mention is made of the Chillingham cattle in 1220, thus over- 
lapping the known last days of the aurochs, with which they are 
supposed to be identical, though much reduced in size by reason 
of close confinement to the northern limits of their natural range. 

All these so-called " park cattle " or " wild white cattle " are 
somewhat smaller than the larger breeds of domestic cattle of 
to-day. They are of a uniform dirty white color except the ears, 
muzzles, switch of the tail, and the lower portions of the legs, 
which range from brown to a brownish red. They are generally 
horned and in every way resemble common cattle except as to 

1 These are variously called Bos loiigifrons. Bos frontosits, etc., from the 
different specimens that have been found of these early "deerlike" forms of 
the cattle kind. It is significant that none of these cattle are found back of the 
later stone age. 



2 20 



iH>Mi:s I'KA n-n ammai.s \\n ri \\ is 



size, color, and ilisposiiion, which is vor\' wiKl. llioir iilontitv 
with the ancient aurochs is ahnost assuivd. Icaxini;' us to look 
with contulcncc upon these wild jxiik c.iiile as the nali\e stock 
out ot" which luu'opean antl especialK laii;lish breeds ha\e been 
developeil. As American breeds are almost exclusiveh' ICn^lish, 




Fu;. 43. Hood Faim Togis 9 of 5555-. A ohMmpion hinisi'lt' out of a 

champion sire and dam, and sire of a diampion. Head of liooil l''arm 

herd of lersevs. Courtesy of C". I. llooii i\; (o. 



exceptinj;' onh- the Hrouii Swiss, their lineage is t'airh' well 
established as running back to the aurochs, or />\ /•;•/////>< 7/ //.f, 
throuj;h the "' park cattle " ' o( to-dav. 

An interesting; contirniation ot" this assumption occurs fre- 
(|uenll\-, especiallv amtMii; Dexon cattle, whiih are known to have 
developed from the earl\ nati\e cattle of southern baiolaiul. 

' See " Wild White Cattle of Creat Hritain," by Storer, for a most fasciiialinj; 
account of these interestiu};' remains of earlier davs, that would have afforded 
richer relics had l-'uropc possessed the inaccessible hig:hlands of southein Asia 
as natural and safe retreats for these wild animals of the cattle kiml. 



Ol<'|(,l\ Ol \)<)\]\:Sl\(:.Vl']\\) AXIMALS 



227 




These caltle are ordinarily solid red in color, bul in rare instances 
a calf is dropped that is solid white except its ears and muzzle, 
which are invariably red or brown, closely resembling the modern 
wild white cattle of the parks.' 

The sheep (Ovis aries). Here again domestication took 
place sfj long ago that its history is lost, and no man can say 
what were the precise species that furnished the foundation 
for our domesticated forms. 
Certain it is that wild ani- 
mals of the sheep kind are 
and have been common on 
the earth in nearly all moun- 
tain regions of proper 
latitude. 

'i'here is no grander 
specimen of the wild sheep 
in all the earth than the big- 
horn of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, Ovis cajiadensis . 
.Standing three and a half 
feet high at the withers Cfull-grown males), with strong, well-knit 
legs supporting a mu.scular IxxJy covered with a dense coat of 
hglit brown hair fading to a dirty white beneath, carrying through- 
out a dense coat of "shining white underwool," this animal as a 
whole is a .striking specimen, even without reference to the head, 
which i.s, after all, the distinguishing feature of the bighorn. 

This head is compo.sed of a massive skull supporting a pair 
of truly immense horns, .sweeping upward and backward, then 

1 This is " reversion," or resemblance to a remote ancestor rather than to 
the true parent, about which more was said in earlier chapters. The same 
thing happens in nearly all breeds, and it is so common that a visit to large 
stockyards like those of Chicago rarely fails to find at least one specimen of 
this kind. Kiding past a freight train standing on a siding, not long since, I 
saw in bold relief among the cattle on one of the cars the characteristic dirty 
white face, upturned slanting horns, and red ears of the Chillingham cattle. It 
was an accidental product of an Illinois herd on his way to market, — mute wit- 
ness of a history that is passing fast and must soon be read only in the books. 



Fu;. 44. The Dorset, an English horned 

breed, nearer the bighorn than any other 

domesticated breed 



2 28 DOMKSIICA IKI) ANIMALS AND I'l.ANTS 

forward and outward in a «;raccl"ul spiral curve not displayed by 
any other animal known to the wild. These horns have been 
known to measure thirty-three, and in rare cases forty, inches 
when measured along the curve, and with a girth at the skull of 
no less than fifteen or sixteen inches. 

These magnificent animals choose their range far up the most 
inaccessible mountain ledges, and, when surprised, have the most 
marvelous ability both to clamber and to lea]). They readil}' 
leap thirty or forty feet, striking safely on the feet,^ and a drop 
down precipices of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet 
is said to be well within their ability. 

This true wild sheep ranges from the mountains of Mexico 
to those of Alaska. Its flesh is said to equal the best venison, 
and it would undoubtedly have yielded to domestication if we 
had not already been well supplied with sheep when the country 
was discovered. 

On the Asiatic side the Kamcliatkan wild sheep {O^'i's )iiin- 
fola) closely resembles the bighorn e\cei)t that he is lighter in 
body and limb and finer in head and horn. .As with him, both 
sexes are horned. Oft" to the southwest in northern Mongolia 
is the closely related argali {Oi'is aniuion), and further on in the 
highlands of Tibet is a .slightly different species, Ovis Jiodgsoni. 
Still further to the southwest in eastern Turkestan, and at an 
elevation of ten to twelve thousand feet, is the wild Pamir sheep 
{Ovis poll), the onlv ri\"al of the bighorn. This fellow can 
boast a horn measuring as much as sixty inches, but without the 
magnificent curve of the bighorn, as it stands out somewhat at 
the side, that is. has a greater spread. The mountain regions 
of southern Asia are well supplied with sheeplike animals, too 
numerous in their species even to be enumerated here. 

Off to the west we have the Armenian sheep {Ovis gincUni)^ 
in the islands of the Mediterranean the Cyprian {Ovis ophion), 
and further west, in Corsica and Sardinia, the Mouflon {Ovis 

^ It is asserted, but upon questionable authority, that a favorite habit of the 
bighorn when he doubts his legs is to light upon his head. 



ORKHN OF DOMESTICA'J'KI) ANIMALS 



229 



musiuion). These are all horned sheep from which such a breed 
as the Merino might have descended with no more change than 
is often effected in domestication. 

From these wild types the species shade off into the blue 
sheep of Tibet and the Barbary sheep, with its wealth of long 
hair on its throat and legs, and its horselike tail, but standing 
between the sheep and the goat, as the musk ox stands between 




Fk;. 45. Domestication complete. A wild mountain animal brought to the 
lowlands and ready to follow the call of man 



the cattle and the sheep. From here on are a sheer multitude 
of more or less distantly related species, — goats, ibex, markhor, 
tahr, nilgiri, goral, serow, chamois, eland, kudu, antelope, nyl- 
ghau, gemsbok, gazelle, springbok, puku, klipspringer, llama, 
alpaca, and scores of others down to the gnu, or wild beast with 
the horn of a musk ox, the head and mane of a bison, the tail 
of a horse, and body and legs midway between the horse and 
the cow. 



230 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

It cannot fail to occur to the reader that the wild and inacces- 
sible mountain regions and high plateaus of central and southern 
Asia have afforded a unique retreat for multitudes of the wild 
relatives of the larger of our domestic animals, ^ and that to a 
similar but less extent the mountain regions of Africa and of 
western America, both to the north and the south, have served 
the same significant purpose. 

The domestic sheep are, roughly speaking, of four distinct 
classes: first, the horned varieties like the Merino and the Dor- 
set, resembling most closely the nearest wild relatives ; second, 
the common hornless and coarse-wooled breeds of England and 
America, such as the Shropshire, Lincoln, Cotswold, Leicester, 
and Southdown ; third, the so-called fat-tailed sheep of south- 
western Asia and northeastern Africa, in some strains of which 
the tail often reaches a weight of forty or fifty pounds and drags 
upon the ground, while in others, with shorter tails, the enormous 
amount of fat occurs in the rump ; ^ fourth, a minor strain be- 
longing to Iceland and remarkable for the fact that, like the 
Cyprian wild sheep, its horns are not limited to two, but, ac- 
cording to Youatt, may be three or any other number, odd or 
even, up to as many as eight. 

It must be clear to the student that there is no dearth of 
evidence in nature for the domestication of sheep, and that, even 
yet, should all our common breeds be lost, they could be sub- 
stantially restored from new material out of the tiTily wild. The 
greatest change made in domestication would seem to have 

litis difficult to realize that this " roof of the world " — this high and broken 
interior with its forbidding mountainous southern wall, in most places almost 
uninhabitable by man and hence practically given over to the wild — is not a 
small area, but rather a region of vast extent, not less than two thousand miles 
across. When this is fully realized it will not seem so strange that almost 
everything traces to a wild counterpart in " central Asia." It is the great left- 
over and uncivilized part of the world. 

2 This fat is exceedingly soft, more like marrow than tallow, and is often 
spread directly on bread and eaten as butter. It is the skins of the young 
lambs of these sheep that constitute the astrakhan of commerce, and it is their 
intestines from which the (lermans make the so-called catgut for the violin 
and other small stringed instruments. 



ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 23 1 

been in the length of staple and fineness in fiber of the wool, 
and probably in the accumulation of fat, for no wild sheep is 
known that has the fat-secreting habit of the fat-tailed breeds ; 
indeed, most of the wild species are extremely short-tailed. 

The goat. This near relative of the sheep has been domesti- 
cated from the earliest times, and his wild relatives are yet 
abundant in many parts of the world, particularly from the 
Pyrenees of Spain eastward to the great central plateau of Asia. 
The Angora, which is native to Asia Minor and is noted for its 
beautiful fleece ; the Kashmir of Bokhara and Tibet, which is 
the source of the famous cashmere shawls ; the Syrian goat of 
southwestern Asia ; the Sudan goat of northern Africa ; and 
the Egyptian goat of Egypt, from the lower Nile to its native 
hills in Nubia, — these are the principal races of interest from 
the standpoint of usefulness and domestication. 

The pig. As with the sheep so with the pig ; almost every 
region of the earth has its native species, no less than a score 
of which are well known and fully described by naturalists. 

The peccary is the wild pig of Central and South America, 
though he is one of the farthest removed of the wild relatives 
in having not the simple stomach of the true pig but a complex 
digestive apparatus something like the ruminants. The common 
pig certainly does not trace directly to the peccary, which, how- 
ever, would have afforded material suitable for domestication 
had it not been rendered unnecessary by the better forms 
already in our possession. 

The great wild ancestor of our common pig exists in two 
well-marked species, the European wild boar (Sf/s scrofa) and 
the Indian wild boar {Siis cri status). 

The European species originally ranged over all Europe, 
northern Africa, and central and western Asia as far even as 
Mesopotamia and Beluchistan. It is now extinct in most of its 
former stamping grounds, but yet lingers in some of the forests 
of Germany where the boar hunt is a favorite form of amuse- 
ment. The blood of this species has been freely employed in 



232 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

the devcldi^mcnt of the larger Knghsh breeds, sueh as the York- 
shire, the Tamworth, and the I^erkshire, the latter so largely 
represented in that truly American breed, the Poland China. 

The Indian wild boar is closely related and very similar to 
the h^uropean. lie. runs a little larger, standing often as high 
as forty inches at the shoulders. Like his European cousin he 
is a dangerous enemy and does not hesitate, when pursued, to 
attack whatever appears, — men, horses, elephants, or even tigers. 
Boar hunting, as it is called in luirope, and " pig sticking," as 
the term goes in India, are therefore counted special])' fine 
sports for the hunter. 

Hoth these species inhabit the forests of the lower lands and 
both cover extensive stretches of country. Their food is varied, 
ranging from grass roots and worms, which they dig from the 
ground with their serviceable rooters, to small animals, especially 
snakes, against which they seem to hold a special grudge, and 
which they are peculiarly skillful in killing by jumping and 
lighting with all four feet on the tail, ripping up the creature 
into " shoe strings " with their enormous tusks, which are the 
prolonged incisor teeth. 

Besides the Indian wild boar southeastern Asia affords a 
large number of closely related but smaller races. There are no 
less than a half dozen of these well-marked species in the Malay 
Peninsula alone, besides the curious little pigmy hog {Sus str/- 
vajiiiis) of the Himalayan foothills, standing only ten or eleven 
inches at the shoulders. Still again there is the masked pig of 
Japan, with its heavy folds of skin about the face and its immense 
drooping ears. 

PYom some or several of these Asiatic species domesticated 
races were doubtless developed long ago. Certain it is that 
domesticated pigs were known in China before they were in 
Europe, and that much of the blood of modern domestic swine 
came originally from this stock, and would be traceable, if we 
knew the history, to some of these native races or their extinct 
relatives, of which there are many, ranging from a giant form 



ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 233 

about the size of a common mule down to one not much larger 
than the modern pigmy hog of India. Evidently the hog tribe 
has been a long time with us and has seen, as it is now seeing, 
exceedingly prosperous days. 

Besides these already mentioned, Asia affords another notable 
species, the babiroussa, a little further removed from the true 
pig, as he has a pair of tusks rising from his nose and midway 
between his snout and his eyes. Me is, however, essentially a 
wild pig, and in his natural habitat, the lowlands of Celebes, he 
is found both wild and domesticated. 

Africa affords a goodly number of wild relatives, notably the 
gray bush pig (Siis africamis) of the south-central regions and 
the litde red bush pig or river hog {Sus porcus) of the west- 
ern lowlands. Aside from these true pigs there are several 
species of the so-called wart hogs, ugly specimens with immense 
heads and broad noses crowned with vicious tusks, deriving 
their name from three hornlike " warts " that develop on the 
side of the face just below the eyes. 

Altogether the pig is not at all wanting in relatives of the 
woods, even without going to the more remote connections such 
as the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, or the elephant. Of all our 
domesticated animals none are more readily traced to the wild and 
none more quickly or more thoroughly revert to the feral state. 
The pig in domestication is generally quiet and harmless, but he 
is capable of a good fight, and in the semiwild state a drove of 
hogs is an enemy more dangerous than most wild animals. 

Quite contrary to popular opinion, the pig is among the 
cleanest of our domestic animals. Like the buffalo he seeks 
the water, or mud in absence of water, as a protection against 
the heat of the sun. Having no sweat glands, he gets no relief 
by evaporation from his own body, and his resort to the cooling 
effects of water is not only natural but necessary. 

The cat {Felis catus). Here again domestication is lost in 
antiquity, but the origin is not difficult to trace. Wild cadike 
animals, are common in the world, and nowhere more common 



2 34 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



than in North America, where the wild cat and lynx inhabited 
the primeval forests in more or less abundance. Indeed, the 
domestic cat possesses a wide range of wild congeners the world 
over, beginning with the tiger and the lion and shading off, 
through the jaguar, the leopard, and the puma, to its nearer 
relatives, the marbled cat {Fclis uiannorata) of the eastern 
Himala}'as and Burma ; the golden cat [Fclis tcniiniiicki) of 
northern India, Tibet, and the Malay Peninsula ; the fishing 
cat {Fclis vivcrrina) of India; the spotted leopard cat {Fclis bcn- 
galcnsis), and a great number and variety of similar species be- 




Yxc. 46. The European and the American wild cats respectively. Clearly our 
domesticated cat is more closely related to the former 

longing to the same general region. Besides these there arc the 
yellowish-gray Caff re or Egyptian cat {Fclis caffraf-, from which 
the European species, which he greatly resembles, has doubtless 
sprung ; the common wild cat {Fclis catns), which has inhabited 
P2ngland since the days of the mammoth, and at one time cov- 
ered all Europe except the southern portion ; the pampas cat 
of South America, the jungle cat of India, and so on into the 
lynxes, the hunting leopard, and other more distant relatives. 

All wild animals of the cat kind are universally hated by 
hunters ix'cause of their stealth and innate savagery, for, whether 
tiger or leopard, panther, puma, jaguar, lynx, or wild cat, they 

^ Also called Fe/is caligata and Fclis iitaiiiculala. 



ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



235 



are the most terrible of all wild animals. It is also an open 
question if the domestic cat has not lost his usefulness long 
ago, if, indeed, he ever had any. He never was but half- 
domesticated at best, and while he is a universal favorite with 
children because of his furry coat and look of seeming intelli- 
gence, he is yet essentially a wild animal, almost incapable of 
true domestication. He has lost little of his innate savagery, 
and as a relentless foe of birds he has really become an enemy 
to our civilization. The sooner he could become extinct the 
better for our song birds on which we depend so much not only 
for our pleasure but for protection against the depredations of 
insects. The true nature of the cat should be more commonly 
understood in this respect, as well as its proclivity to throat dis- 
eases common to children. We can well afford to do without 
the cat. 

Domesticated Birds 

The domestication of birds ^ was a great achievement, whether 
viewed from the standpoint of its inherent difficultv, the quality 
and cheapness of their meat 
and eggs, or the utility of 
their feathers. All told, the 
domesticated birds cover 
many species, with scores of 
wild relatives in all parts of 
the world. Most of them 
being, in the wild state, 
good fiyers, their distribution 
is much wider than is that of 
species more closely confined 
to locomotion on the ground. 

The hen. Of all the birds 
domesticated none is more valuable than the chicken {Gallus 
domesticns), whose undoubted progenitor, Galhis bankivns, can 
yet be heard cackling in the forests of Farther India ; all of 

1 See Darwin's "Animals and Plants under Uomestication," Vol. I, p. 236. 




Fig. 47. A trio of prize-winning barred 

Plymouth Rocks, property of Bradley 

Bros., Lee, Massachusetts 



230 lUtMKSrirAI'KD ANIMALS AND IM.ANl'S 

which suggests the fact tliat, as in inan\' similar lascs, wc owe 
a lasting debt of gratitude to the ancient people of that far-off 
country for thus bringing into our service one of the most wary 
of all the wild birds, and making of it one of the most valuable 
of the domesticated races. 

Its nearest relatives are the jiheasants, and man\- exceedingly 
closely related species are t\)und wild in wideh' scattered regions 
of the Kast. their favorite haunts being the forests of l^uther 
India. The prairie chicken of ihe West, (hough a true grouse, 
is, to all intents and purposes, the American etiuivalent of this 
Asiatic product, and, had it been necessary, would ha\'e afforded 
material for a valuable domestic bird. 

The goose. The wild goose \et lingers in nvAny parts of the 
world, notabJN' the gray lag gXH)se {.b/S(/- c in or /is), nesting 
in the northern British Islands, -the i)robable paicnt of the 
domesticated goose. Its American equivalent is represented bv 
no less than three well-dertned s|)ecies. the snow goose of the 
tar north (Ansn- //r/^rr/h^nw/s), the smalk'r l\oss"s goose of 
the northwest and the blue-winged goose {.h/sfr ((rr/z/twrrf/s), 
whose teeding and breeding places are along the great lakes of 
northern United States and Canada. Hesides these there are 
manv closch' related species ; indeed. the\' brL^-d ewMAwhere in 
the subarctic regions. 

Here, again, it was a foreign strain that furnished the material 
for domestication, because the g(H)se is an old-time faxorite ; 
indeed, it is probable that he has already passed his period of 
greatness among us. He has always been prized for his feathers, 
but cannot be regarded as the equal of eithi'r the chicken, the 
turkey, or even the duck as a table delicac\-. 

The duck. Here again the wild form is common, indeed so 
common as to be a favorite game bird. Of the numerous species 
the beautiful mallard {.bias /wsrifs) is the tvpical game duck 
and is regarded as the parent and progenitor of the domesticated 
form. This sjiecies is said to inhabit the whole of the western 
hemisphere, wherever suitable feeding grounds can be found 



OKKil.X OK DOMKSriCATKl) ANIMALS 237 

between the arctic circle and the tropics. He is a truly cosmo- 
politan bird, and it is not strange that many varieties and sub- 
species should have developed as the result of his widespread 
range and varied environment. Homestication of the duck is ea.sy 
and has undoubU-dly been accomplished many times. More than 
one hen lias hatched a brood of wild duck's eggs, after which a 
timely { Jipj^ing oi the wings insured a flock of tame ducks. 

The turkey. Here at last we come t(j a truly American bird, 
more fitting by far than the eagle to stand as the emblem 
of America. 

When our I'uiiLan ancestors landed on the forbidding shores 
of New ICngland, they found the woods alive with a .strange 
wild bird, wary and fleet both of foot and wing, but most ex- 
cellent eating and easily tamed. 

This native of the New World not only hc'l])c-d out in the 
"terrible winters," when food was scarce with the colonists, but 
he remained in domestication to grace the tables of comfort, 
and to-day the 1 hanksgiving turkey is everywhere the symbol 
of plenty. 

Of the four contributions of the New WVjrld to domesticated 
species, namely corn, tobacco, the potato, and the turkey, the 
latter is the only animal, and he clearly outranks any other food 
bird that has ever been domesticated. Of this contribution to our 
civilization America may well be proud, especially as no similar 
species has ever been discovered elsewhere on earth, save only 
the related brush turkey of Australia and the outlying islands. 

The American turkey exists wild in no less than three distinct 
species : Mclcai^ris americana, the parent of the black turkey 
of the eastern United States ; Mclcagris j^allopavo, of northern 
Mexico, parent of the bronze strains ; and the beautiful Melea- 
gris ocellata of Ciuatemala, Yucatan, and British Honduras, 
described as radiant, with its " greenish-blue eyespot shot with 
purple, while the metallic parts of the body feathers are golden 
or bronze green and the naked head and neck blue, covered 
with red warts." 



23S DOMKSrKArED ANIMALS AND I'LAN I'S 

The peacock, lliston- shcnvs this bird to have boon an ancient 
table tavDiite in the l\ir b.ast, but he has jxissetl his period of 
favor and is now relegated to a back-vard ornament, if. indeeil. 
he rises much above the level oi a euriositv. 

The peafowl, which is realh' t)ne of the most i;xM"i;eous of 
pheasants, still dwells in the wiKl state in mnthern liulia ami 
southeastern Asia, the most comnK>n species o( India, /\i:v 
iris tilt US, beiui^" closest to the domesticated race. Among his 
nearest relalixcs, structuralh' as well as i;eoi;ra|ihicall\-, are the 
peacock pheasants of the I\iala\- reninsula. exlemliui;- e\en to 
the island of Uorneo. The beaulitul .\r>;us phcisant has the 
evespots in the wing nither than the tail, as in the true pheas- 
ant, and accordingK- it is the wing' that is displa\ed. 

The swan. This bird. too. was ancienlh- uscil for food, but 
is now seen o\\\\ as an ornanuMil in publii" and prixatc lak(.\s 
and ponds. The original abtumils in nearh all the northern 
waters of the world, and ranges ivo\w pure while to solid black. 

The guinea fowl. This noisv little hen is hardlv worthy of 
being ranked as a tlomesticated fowl. The guinea is realK' an 
African pheasant, of which several distinct antl widel\- different 
species are found wild along the western coast, from Liberia 
southward. It is rareh' kept in numbers, but a few are often 
found with other poultrx'. " to scare oii the hawks." 

AnonioN Ai R.\ci:s .wo Si:Mii)(>Mi'.sruAi'io\ 

Besides these animals with which we are best ae(iuainled othei" 
species ha\e been wIk^IK" or ixutialh' domesticated, either b\- oiu"- 
selves or by other people, either in our own or other countries. 

As the buffalo replaces oiu" common cattle for labor in certain 
humid regions, so the elephant is extensi\el\' emploNCtl wher- 
ever he is fouiul nali\e. as in .Asia ami .\frica. ihe camel is, 
and alwa\s will be. the ship of the desiMl. 

The llama and the alpaca of the .Antlean plateau the one 
to bear burdens, the other for its lleece — are lx)lh well known 



()Rl(;iX OF ]J{JMESTICATED ANIMALS 239 

and only half-domesticated, as are the reindeer of the arctic 
regions and the ostrich of the desert. 

A few strange cases of semidomestication can be mentioned, 
such as the cheetah, or hunting leopard, the falcon, or hunting 
hawk, and the quite general utilization of certain breeds of 
snakes in the tropics to rid the houses of vermin. To this can 
be added the fact that we occasionally employ the weasel to 
hunt out and destroy rats, as the Romans used the marten in 
place of the cat to hunt mice. 

Besides these might be mentioned a small multitude of pets, 
representing nearly all species of wild animals, almost any of 
which may be tinned if taken when young, and most of which 
have been so treated not once but many times since their con- 
tact with the human race. 

And so the list might be extended almost indefinitely, were 
the space available, to show fully how man has put to his own 
uses the wild animals of forest, lake, and plain during his long 
history on earth and his determined campaign to enslave them 
and bring them, so far as possible, into his service. 

Unwelcome domestication. Certain species have volunteered 
to infest the habitations of man, attracted mostly by a liberal 
food supply. Among these would be mentioned the rat and the 
mouse, which are world-wide, both as house and as wild species. 
The house fly is another pest that, together with the rat and 
the mouse, is coming to be recognized not only as a common 
nuisance, but also as a fruitful carrier of infectious diseases. 

Besides these, a great variety of insect pests especially haunt 
the habitations of man because there they find abundant food 
supply and favorable conditions of life generally. 

Exercises. 1. Extend the study of particular species and follow out the 
wild connections, relatives, habitat, and habits further than in the text, em- 
ploying for this purpose the facts of zoology and all the information avail- 
able in histories, encyclopedias, and books of travel. 

2. .Secure information about the uses to which the less-known domes- 
ticated animals are put, using again all available sources of information. 



240 DOMES'llCAlKl) ANIMALS AND PLAN'l'S 

3. Write compositions showing the extent to which any particular species, 
as the horse or the sheep, has been helpful in the advancement of our 
civilization, and how we should have been hampered had we been obliged 
to get on without him. 

4. Write an account of your personal experience in taming some wild 
animal for a pet. 

5. Write an account of your personal experience in training some young 
domestic animal as a pet or for work. 

6. Point out in domestic animals some habit or trait that it has brought 
down from the wild, such as the pawing of snow by horses and sheep to get 
at the grass beneath. 

References. 1. "Animals and Plants under Domestication" (Vol. I, 
chaps, i-viii, inclusive). Darwin. 

2. "The Breeds of Domestic Animals." Plumb. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES i 

Cultivated plants, like domesticated animals, originated in the wild • The 

grasses • Wheat • Barley • Indian corn • Oats • Rye • Rice • Sorghum • Sugar 

cane • Millet • Buckwheat • Timothy • Blue grass • Redtop • Orchard grass • 

The Festucas • Miscellaneous grasses 

Cultivated plants, like domesticated animals, originated in 
the wild. The succeeding chapter will show briefly how it was 
that the choicest plants, like the most useful animals, came to be 
appropriated by man, — taken out of their wild surroundings and 
more or less completely domesticated. The present chapter will 
deal with a few of the more important of the cultivated plants, 
some of which are not yet fully domesticated. 

By far the most useful of all plants is the so-called grass 
family, used for grain, forage, and pasture. Botanically the 
grasses are distinguished by narrow, parallel-veined leaves on a 
jointed hollow stem bearing seeds on a more or less compact 
spike at the top, like timothy and wheat, or, occasionally, at one 
of the joints midway up the stem, as in Indian corn. These 
plants are valuable, first, for their seeds, which are numerous and 
large and distinguished for their starch content, and sometimes, 
as in corn, for their oil. They are also valuable for forage be- 
cause the immature stem and leaf when cured are eaten greedily 
by nearly all domesticated animals.^ Besides this, many of the 
smaller species, like blue grass and the so-called buffalo grasses 

^ See Darwin's "Animals and Plants under Domestication," Vol. I, chaps, ix, 
X, and "Origin of Cultivated Plants," by Alphonse de Candolle, for additional 
information about cultivated species. The latter volume has been freely drawn 
upon for material in the present chapter. 

2 Contrary to common belief, the pig likes hay, but he vastly prefers clover 
or alfalfa to timothy or any of the grasses. See under Leguminous Plants. 

241 



242 DOMKS in A ri:i) ANIMALS AND TLANl'S 

of the piairio. arc excellent pasture ; incieed. most pastures, culti- 
vated or natixe. consist larueh' of true i;rasses with a more or 
less sli>;ht athnixlure ol legumes. 

Many of the true grasses are entireh' unsuited to the uses of 
man. Die seetls are too few or too small for i;rain, or the stems 
too coarse, too harsh, or loo small for either ha\ or pasture. ( M" 
course such species ha\e newr been tlomeslicatetl ; indeetl. hut 
a small proportion are suitetl to our use, as we full\- reali/e when 
we remember that the i;rass fanilK numbers more si)ecies than 
anv other known to botany. 

Wheat. Ihis widespread species is the greatest single food 
for man, antl was, without doubt, one of the \er\- tirst jilants to 
be brought out o\ the wikl and cullixated, as it (.-ertainh' has 
been from the greatest antic|uit\-. A small-grained \arietv has 
been discovered among the remains of the lake dwellers 
of Switzerland, dating from the vavW stone age of l'".urope — 
contemporaneous certainh' with the Trojan War about 1 _\xi n.c, 
and i)erhaps much eaiiier. i'he same kind o[' grain has been 
found in the jiNiamitls of l\g\pt, dating back more than three 
thousand years before Christ, and the C'hint\se aw known to 
have cultix'ated this "gift ilirect from lleaxi-n " full\- as earl\- 
as 2700 n.c. 

Names for wheat are various ami widespread in many lan- 
guages, showing again, antl on philological grounds, that its 
cultivation dates from anticiuitw The l\gvptians called it />r : 
the Hebrews, cJiittixh : the Chinese, >iuii : in Sanskrit it was 
siiviatia \\x\i\. goiiliitma : and in Hascjue, okliavii} .All this was 
so long ago that it is now impossible to trace our wheat back 
to its original wild form. I'hough it co\eis nearl\- all the culti- 
vated lands of the world and exists in man\- \ariilies both red 
and white, bearded and plain, there is growing nowhere on 
earth an\- known plant suflicienlb near to wheal to be regarded 
with certainty as the original. Wheat exists now in four well- 
marked species : 

' " Origin of Cultivated I'lants," p. 356. 



(;i;i;i'iVA ri',!) (;i<ai\.s and orassks 



24: 



1. IViticjivi -i'uli^arc, ihc common wheat as vvc know it, both 
bearded and |)lain, red and white, winter and spring, a type that 
is very aiu lent. 

2. 7 liticnm luixi(i?iin, or Tritictim composituni as it is some- 
times called, — a branching-headed race passing by the common 
names of ICgyptian wheat, wheat of miracle, or wheat of abun- 
dance ; not of great antiquity, because old remains are not found 
and no name exists for it in cither Sanskrit, Indian, or I'ersian. 

3. 'rrilicmii <{urinii, or hard wheat, growing plentifully in 
soutlicin ICuiopc iiiidcr iii;iny names, none of which trace to 
ancient c)rigin, nor arc its remains discovered in anti(juity, leav- 
ing the inference that it was derived from the common wheat, 
T. vulgarc, and ,il ;i not distant date. 

4. Triticuin poloiiicnm, or i'c^lish wheat, cultivated in the east 
of luiropc. Its original (icrman name \'a giinimn\ and its other 
names are individuiij or local, not connected with ;inti(juity. 

None of these races is kn(jwn to grow wild anywhere on earth; 
indeed, they would not thrive as feral races, for wheat cannot 
long maintain itself against weeds and the more vigorous wild 
competitors.^ 

liesides the true wheats there are three closely related species 
that may well engage our attention in this connectif)n. These 
are thc! common spelt {'/ritir/uii sprlla), tlx; one-grained wheat 
( Tnticuvi monococcnni), and the two-grained or starch wheat 
(Irilintiii (iicoccum), the " cmmer " of our own day. 

The sjjchs stand to wheat much as the so-called husk corn 
does to common maize ; that is, each kernel is enveloped in a 
tight-fitting husk or chaff of its own, like oats or rice. All these 
species were cultivated by the lake dwellers of Switzerland, and 
common names for these wheatlike grains abound, but they all 
trace to southern l'>uropcan or western Asiatic sources. 

iNone of these species is positively known to be growing wild, 
allhough different observers have asserted the finding of each. 

' This has been tried at Kothamsted, and a wheat field left to itself was soon 
entirely overrun by weeds. 



244 DOMESTK'ATKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

The one most frequently claimed as a wildling is the mono- 
coccum, but this is best fitted of all the wheats to maintain itself 
in the wild state, as it thrives in the most forbidding land. 

There is much reason also to consider this one-grained species 
as the most primitive of all the races, and the one that is prob- 
ably nearest the original wild plants from which our wheats have 
been developed by countless generations of cultivation. 

Some authorities are inclined to consider the spelts as having 
been derived from the true wheats by breeding, but that is 
hardly likclw The common facts of evolution, as we know 
them, now indicate that it is easier for a species to change by 
the loss of a character than by the acquisition of a new part.^ 
This accords, too, with the well-known fact that the so-called 
husk corn, when planted, will give a considerable proportion of 
corn with naked kernels.'^ 

While true wheat is nowhere growing wild, we ma\' confi- 
dently regard the spelts, especially 7". vionococciini, as repre- 
senting a primitive stock, lost so far as botanists go, or else 
unrecognizable because of great change in either the domesti- 
cated or the wild species or in both. Facts both botanical and 
philological, however, point to southeastern Europe and western 
Asia as the general region in which wheat was developed, some 
authorities confidently regarding Mesopotamia as the undoubted 
original home. 

In the midst of all this doubt three facts are clear : first, wheat 
as we know it does not grow wild ; second, it has been cultivated 
in substantially its present form for at least five or six thousand 
years, and probably in some form from the remotest antiquity ; 
third, it does not readily maintain itself in the wild, so that it 
has either changed greatly or else its wild progenitor has been 
greatly altered or never did exist outside some remote and 
restricted area. 

' Sec chapter on Mutation. 

"^ Candolle mentions that one sowing gave 225 ears of husk corn and 105 
of the common form (" Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 394). 



CULTIXATEI) GRAINS AND GRASSES 245 

Totally aside from all this, however, the student should under- 
stand that there are still growing wild a number of closely allied 
species belonging to the same genus of heavy-grained, wheatlike 
plants. One of the most conspicuous of these is the common 
quack grass, Triticjivi rcpcns, which maintains itself by its running 
rootstock, independent of its seeding, and is therefore a trouble- 
some weed ; another is the awned wheat grass, Triticiini caniimni, 
which is, along with several other species, indigenous to northern 
latitudes. It will be seen, therefore, that taking the world over 
there is no dearth of relatives of the wheat kind, not only in 
cultivation but also in the wild, nor should we expect at this 
date to find anywhere in nature species identical with strains 
that have been cultivated and selected for more than a hundred 
generations of man. 

Barley. This, too, is one of the most ancient of cultivated 
plants, coming down to our own day in three distant races, 
recognized as species by the botanists : viz. the two-rowed, 
Hordcitni distichon ; the common or four-rowed, Hordcum 
vidgare ; and the six-rowed, Hordeimt hexastichon, the most 
commonly cultivated in antiquity. 

The two-rowed barley has been found wild in western Asia 
" from the Red Sea to the Caucasus and the Caspian," ^ though 
whether feral or truly aboriginal cannot of course be told. This 
barley has not been found in Egyptian monuments, but has been 
found among the remains of the lake dwellers of Switzerland 
before their use of metals, though the six-rowed variety seems 
to have been more commonly cultivated then. 

The common four-rowed barley is said to have been seen 
growing wild in Mesopotamia, but it has been found neither in 
Egyptian monuments nor in the lake dwellings. 

On the other hand, the six-rowed barley was well known among 
the ancients, being abundant in the lake dwellings of the early 
stone age and in the earliest Egyptian monuments, as well as in 
Italy during its bronze age. It is not known in the wild state. 
1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 368. 



246 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

From all the facts Candollc draws this interesting inference : 

" I. That the barle\'s with four and six rows were derived 
from //. (Ustichoii, — the two-rowed sort, in prehistoric agri- 
culture anterior to that of the ancient Kg}'ptians who built 
the monuments. 

"2. That barleys with six and four ranks were species formerly 
wild, extinct since the historical epoch." ^ 

Indian corn {Zea mays). This plant is often and most properly 
called maize in written descriptions, because the word " corn " 
is a general term for grain food. Thus "corn" in l^ible times un- 
doubtedly meant wheat, as it does in England to-day, or, at 
most, it might have included barley, which, as we now know, 
was a common grain among the I\gyptians. With us, however, 
the term " corn " is unalterably associated with the maize plant, 
and we shall continue to follow the example of the New World 
and apply this term to oiu" most important grain crop. 

By any count, all things considered, Indian corn is the most 
important grain plant of the world, especially as food for 
domestic animals. It has never been a favorite for the white 
man, partly because it is inferior to wheat and parti)' because it 
is so much used for animals,^ 

This is the only one of pur grain plants that did not come to 
us from the Old World. Like tobacco, potatoes, and the turkey, 
it is truly an American product. When the Spaniards discovered 
South America they found the Aztecs raising this crop freely, 
and when our forefathers landed in New England the Indians 
brought them corn to ward off starvation. 

The mystery of it all is, where they got it, for nowhere on 
the continent or in the world is any wild plant found growing 
that might by any stretch of the imagination be called the 

1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 370. 

- It seems to be a general principle that man will not freely eat the same 
food that he gives his animals. We look upon corn as cattle and pig food, 
and, while not unfit for human diet, yet it is not and will never become a favor- 
ite. We have imported the cowpea from .Xsia, where it is used for human food, 
but we feed it to cattle and do not think of eating it ourselves. 



CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 247 

progenitor of Indian corn. All this strongly suggests that 
the Indians themselves procured it from some former race like 
the mound builders, which ma}^ not have been older than the 
races from which the Aztecs developed. In any event the 
origin of Indian corn is as much of a mystery as that of wheat, 
except that we know precisely when and where it came into the 
hands of the white man.^ 

This crop was the chief reliance of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, 
of western New York. The squaws raised large crops of it, 
which were stored in stockaded villages for protection against 
thieves,^ and while the braves defended the stores and extermi- 
nated their enemies, the squaws cleared more land and raised 
more corn and apples."'^ 

There are many evidences that corn is a comparatively new 
species on the earth. One is the large number of giant grasses 
found in the American tropics, many of which suggest a resem- 
blance to maize, while others are clearly connected with broom 
corn, which is a close relative. The other evidence of its newness 
is its extreme variability not only in size but in the shape, location, 
and character of the grain. 

1 The Aztecs and Toltecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru are not so very 
old as we measure antiquity. They were in the bronze age of their develop- 
ment at the time of the discovery of this continent by Europeans, as the North 
American Indians were in the stone age ; but archeologists do not regard their 
remains as running much, if any, back of the time of Christ, though what civili- 
zation might have antedated them we have no means of knowing, except that 
they left nothing behind that will compare in age with the lake dwellers of 
Switzerland, the pyramid builders of Egypt, or the brickmakers of Babylon. 

2 To protect this store of food fierce wars were waged with their neighbors, 
and as offensive measures are always better than defensive, it became the custom 
to send out each summer one or more parties of young braves to wage wars 
of extermination on surrounding tribes. Nothing could stand against this alli- 
ance of the Six Nations and their methods, and they made themselves felt 
throughout all of eastern Canada, as far west as Illinois and as far south as the 
Carolinas. It was the beginning of what would undoubtedly in time have 
developed an Indian civilization if it had not been interrupted by the coming 
of the white man. In this way a cultivated crop is the beginning of civilization. 

3 The farming of the Iroquois was not limited to corn. Remains of the old 
Indian orchards may still be traced in the region of the lakes of western 
New York. 



248 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

The kernel is generally borne upon an " ear " emerging from 
a joint about halfway up the stalk, and the pollen is ripened on 
a '" tassel " at the top ; that is to say, the female flowers are in 
one place and the male are in another. 

In a few cases, however, stray kernels will be found on the 
tassel (see Fig. 19), showing the presence of female flowers at 
the top ; and more rarely will a short tassel be found on the end 
of the ear, suggesting that the plant has but recently developed 
from a branching stem bearing, like timothy, both male and 
female flowers at the extremities. Of course pollen would fall 
most successfully on the lower flowers, and it is easy to see how, 
in time, a plant might develop like corn, with nearly all the lower 
flowers female and nearly all the upper ones male. 

The grain is also exceedingly variable, ranging from the rough 
kernel of the " dent " to the smooth kernel of the "flint," and 
from the common starchy field corn to the shriveled sweet corn 
and the little pop corn of our gardens. 

Another evidence of the newness of corn is its prompt and 
complete response to selection in almost any desired direction. 
In this way the color may be changed as well as the size of the 
plant, the number and height of the ears upon the stalk, or 
the width and shape of the leaves. Altogether it is an exceed- 
ingly valuable and unusually interesting plant, and we owe our 
Indian predecessors much gratitude for its preservation and 
transmission to us. 

Corn is not a plant well calculated to maintain itself in diffi- 
cult surroundings or under a very wide variety of hard conditions, 
so that, all things considered, it is not strange that this plant is 
not found widely disseminated in the wild. 

First of all, it needs almost ideal conditions for its successful 
growth, and is easily killed out entirely. Again, the grain sepa- 
rates with difficulty from the cob. It has neither wings for flight 
nor means of burial in the ground, neither can it attach itself to 
the hair or fur of animals for distribution. Moreover, it easily rots 
in the same climatic conditions that are best adapted to its growth. 



CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 249 

All things considered, it seems to be one of those plants that 
developed in a small area affording peculiarly favorable condi- 
tions, and, it is altogether probable, was never widely dissem- 
inated in the wild. It could not have been known at all in the 
ancient eastern world, or it would certainly have been cultivated, 
even though the people of those times depended far less upon 
grain and more upon pasture for maintaining their animals than 
we do, and though corn could never make its way for human 
food where wheat could be grown. 

Oats. Two species of this grain are involved in the discussion, 
the common oat {Aveita sativd) and the side oat (A vena otien- 
talis), in which the grains are all upon one side of the head. This 
grain can by no means boast the antiquity of wheat and barley. 
It was grown by the ancient Greeks under the name of bromus, 
and by the Latins as avena. It has been found in the later lake 
dwellings of Switzerland (not very old), but it does not seem to 
have been grown by either the ancient Egyptians or the Hebrews. 

No other cultivated grain can so well maintain itself in the 
uncultivated state, and for this reason oats have been found 
growing wild in many separated regions of the world, but there 
is little or no evidence that it is aboriginal in these places. 

Besides these cultivated races, however, there are a number 
of closely related wild species which interest us, because it is 
possible that from such as these oats were originally had. In 
America we have both Avena striata and Avena smithii, both 
distinctly oatlike wild perennials. The Gartner brothers of 
England, who are among the greatest improvers of the oat, have 
imported a " wild oat " from eastern Asia, which is sufficiently 
close to the common oat to cross with it and to afford foundation 
for selection and ultimate improvement. 

Rye (Secale cereale). Here at last we have a comparatively 
new grain among us, Candolle says that it is not found in 
Eg}'ptian remains nor in those of the lake dwellers, that no 
name for it exists in either the Semitic, Sanskrit, or Chinese 
languages, and that the ancient Greeks did not know it. 



250 DOMKSI'ICA TKI) ANIMALS AND I'LAXTS 

As has been indicated, this is a i)lant that easily maintains 
itself in the wild condition. That wild rye has been many times 
discovered does not admit of a doubt, but, from the fact just 
stated, this would not be conclusive evidence of its aboriginal state. 

However this may be, according to the best authorities there 
are no less than five or six closely related species growing wild 
in western Asia and southeastern Europe, particularly in the 
neighborhood of the Black and Caspian seas, leaving no doubt 
of the identity of its wild relatives and of the approximate region 
of its early cultivation. 

Rice [Oryza sativa). At last we have a grain of ancient and 
honorable standing that still exists truly in the wild state, where 
it nourishes in the marshes of C'ocliin China. Being an aquatic 
plant, it more easily maintiiins itself outside of cultivation than 
can those species confined to the upland.' 

Rice undoubtedly originated in China, where it has been culti- 
vated at least since 2000 r..( ., and whence it spread to India 
and gradually westward around tlie world. Candolle asserts, on 
what he considers good authorilw that a thousand years elapsed 
between its cultivation in Bab\i()n and its introduction into Syria, 
another two or three hundred before it made its way into TLgypt, 
and it was not until 1468 that it was first cultivated in Italy. Its 
introduction into the I'nitcd States is said to date from 1694, 
when a vessel from Madagascar put into a South Carolina port 
in distress, i'rom a little sack of rice on board, given to a resi- 
dent, it I'apidK' spread over the state and afterward to Louisiana, 
where its j^roduction has rapidly increased since the Civil War. 

The history of this plant attracts attention to Zizauia aquatica, 
the Indian rice or water oats of our own country. This curious 

1 The student must be impressed vvilli Uie disadvanta^'e under wliicli wild 
plants, as compared with wild animals, labor in maintaininj; themselves in the 
original state. When the haunts of the wild are invaded by man, the animal 
retreats to other and more remote regions, possibly better than those he has 
been forced to abandon. The plant, on the other hand, being unable to move, 
must stay and take the consequences, and, being the prey of luith animals and 
man, it is comparatively easily forced to e.xtinction. 



CULTIVATED ORAINS AND GRASSES 25 I 

plant grows freely in the marshes and along the borders of our 
northern lakes, where it constitutes the feeding grounds of our 
wild geese in sunnner time. It is tall and \igorous. hearing a 
heavy crop of large starchy seeds. These seeds weie much 
prized by the Indians, who gathered them in great (luantilies 
for food, which fact would undoubtedly have led in due time 
to its systematic cultivation. 

Sorghum {Andropogon sorghum). This genus, Andropogon, with 
its many and diverse species, is a great puzzle to botanists, run- 
ning as it does by almost imj)ereei)tible gradations into the 
genus I'anicum, with its eight hundred and fifty or more species 
scattered well over the world. 

The cultivated sorghums are of two widely different sorts, the 
commercial sugar-bearing sorghum, closely related to the sugar 
cane {Sacchanim ojficinaruvi) and used mostly as a forage 
plant ; and the nonsaccharine, to wliich belong broom corn ^ and 
the various grain crops cultivated under the names Kafir corn, 
durra (doura, dhourra, or dhoura), Milo maize, or Jerusalem corn. 
Botanists quite frequently designate the saccharine sorghums as 
SorgJuini saccliai-atmit and the nonsaccharine as Soro/imii vul- 
i^arc, all of which illustrates their difficulties in attemi)ting to 
make a classification to fit the facts. The sorghums are of recent 
introduction as cultivated plants. They are not found among the 
remains of the lake dwellers or of the T^gyptians. The name 
is absent from Chinese literature until recent times. 'I'he (ireeks 
and Romans were unacquainted with the species, which are not 
mentioned in the Old Testament. 

The origin of the sorghums is not clearly established. By 
many writers they have been credited to Asia, but the absence 
from .Sanskrit of any word to designate sorghum is held by 
Candolle to argue against the assumjjtion. When we add to this 
the fact that nonsaccharine sorghums abound in equatorial Africa 

1 It ought to be generally known that the great broom-corn districts of tlic 
world are in eastern Kansas and in the region about Areola and Tuscola, 
Illinois. 



252 DOMESTlCArKl) ANIMALS AND PLAN'IS 

in many species, we feel confident that we must refer the oiijijin 
of our sorghums lo the dark continent,' whence they spread first 
to Egypt and afterward east, north, and west. 

Sugar cane {Saccharum officinarum). This remarkable sugar- 
bearing plant is only remotely related to the Sorghums. It is 
cultivated to-day in all the equatorial regions of the earth, for 
its sugar is a universal favorite, though it is of but compara- 
tively recent introduction. 

Its most ancient names are Sanskrit^ (ikshu or ikshava). All 
of its nearest related species grow wild in southeastern India, 
the Malay Peninsula, and the outlying islands, lioth these facts 
indicate the origin to have been in Cochin China or thereabouts, 
from which it spread first west with the India trade and after- 
wards to China, where it appeared not much, if any, before the 
time of Christ.'^ The (ireeks and Ivonians had heard of it as 
calanius. The Hebrews were unacquainted with sugar, and to 
them honey and the honeycomb were symbols of sweetness. 
The Arabs introduced it into Spain, and from thence it made 
its way to the West India islands (St. Domingo, 1520, and 
Guadeloupe, 1644) and soon after became rapidly abundant. 

Millet. This is a popular name for a great variety of useful 
plants. Mrst of all, it is often erroneously applied to the Asi- 
atic cultivations of the various nonsaccharine sorghums alieady 
mentioned. 

Again it is apj^lied to the ])earl or cat-tail millet {l\iiuisctiini 
typJioidcuiii), to the foxtail millet {Sctaria italica, the l\xiiic!nn 

1 The writer saw growing freely in lirazii what would be taken anywhere to 
be a broom corn with an inferior brush. 1 had no means of tracing its habitat, 
but from the fact that broom corn was not only not cultivated in the neighbor- 
hood, but brooms themselves were unknown, it had every semblance of being 
indigenous. Granting even that to be true, we could not look upon South 
America as the original source of broom corn because it was known in Egypt 
before the discovery of this country. 

2 "Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 157. 

8 The older Chinese writings are said to make no mention of it, which is 
significant, because the universal appetite for sweets made it a favorite at once 
upon acquaintance. 



CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 253 

italiciivi of Linnaeus, so commonly raised for hay), and to the 
true or broom-corn millet {Panicnm miliaccnin). These last 
two are the millets of literature, and it is somewhat difficult to 
keep them separated. 

Millet has been cultivated as a food plant from great antiquity, 
at least two species being found common in the remains of the 
oldest lake dwellers, which, it will be remembered, were in the 
stone age. S. italica is probably one of the five seeds sown by 
the Chinese emperor at the annual public ceremony instituted 
some 2700 B.C., in which he plows a furrow before the people 
and scatters the five most important seeds therein, thus giving 
public testimony and the highest official endorsement to the 
im]X)rtance of agriculture. 

This Italian millet {S. italica) is the millet of ancient China, 
which is almost certainly native in southeastern Asia, where its 
related species abound, and whence it must have made its way 
to Switzerland by a northern rather than by a southern route, as 
it was unknown in Syria ; unless, indeed, it had a double origin, 
as is not at all improbable when we compare with it our common 
and abundant foxtail grass, the nearly related Setaria viridis, 
which could readily be made into a valuable grain-bearing grass. 

The other true millet was also known to the lake dwellers, and 
from all accounts seems to have been native in southwestern 
Asia, possibly in the Egyptian side of Arabia. 

Buckwheat {Polygonum fagopyrum). This useful grain is men- 
tioned here quite out of its place, for it is in no way related to the 
grasses. It is a relative of the smartweeds, which, together with 
still closer relatives, grow freely over the northern United States. 

The original of our common buckwheat grows wild in Man- 
churia, on the banks of the Amur River, and two or three related 
but inferior species, such as the Tartary buckwheat, are wild in 
Tartary and Siberia. From here it made its way into Europe, 
following the former species which had been introduced by way 
of Tarfciry and Russia during the Middle Ages (about 1400), 
under the name of Saracen wheat, a name that long confused 



254 



i)()Mi:sricArEi) animai-s and i'Lants 



authorities as to its nativity. The point was only reeently cleared 
up and the true origin of this grain established in Manchuria, 
all of whicli tallies well with the fact that it was apparently 
unknown to ihc ])rehistoric people either of Europe or of Asia. 

Timothy {Phkum pratense). This plant, so familiar to farmers 
as the great hay grass, is the same as the herd's grass of New 
l^ngiand. It is native in Europe, as the small and related PJilann 
a/pin/iiii, or mountain timoth)', is native to the higher latitudes 
and the upi)er levels of the northern Appalachian Mountains. 

This great hay ^ grass is at best only semidomesticated, for it 
has never been systematically " improved," as have wheat, corn, 
and almost all the grain crops, so that onl)' one variety exists. 

Blue grass {Poa pratensis) (Kentucky blue grass, June grass, 
spear grass, etc.), like timothy, is raised in pretty much its orig- 
inal condition. It is native throughout the hilly lands of east- 
ern United States from Pennsylvania westward, whence it has 
crept as far west as Iowa and Kansas and as far south as Ten- 
nessee, below which it does not seem to thrive. Eike timothy it 
has ne\er been improved and exists in ])ul one variety, though it 
is \er\' N'ariable and there are more than eighty related species. 

Redtop {Agrostis vulgaris), often called bent grass, is another 
wildling among the grasses, and some of the best redtop 
meadows are self-seeded. Most of the redtop seed of the world 
is produced in three or four counties of southern Illinois, show- 
ing that it is only fairly coming into domestication. It grows 
native in southern United States, over widely scattered regions 
both high and low, but only in the latter does it make growth 
enough to be of value. 

' Timothy is unsuitcd for pasture l)cc;uisc it grows a little i)ull) just under 
ground. If pastured when young, this Httle bulii will not form, in which case 
the sod will not endure ; and if pastured after haying, the stock will soon learn 
to pull up and eat this bulb. This is what causes many farmers to wonder why 
their cattle thrived so well on stubble pasture in dry weather, when grass does 
not grow. It is also the reason why the meadow next year is a disappoint- 
ment; the plants have been pulled up and killed. Timothy should not be 
pastured when it has been recently mowed, that is, stock should not be turned 
upon timothy meadows immediately after haying. 



CULTIVA'J'KI) GRAINS AND GRASSES 



255 



Orchard grass {Dactylis glomerata). This curious and very 
striking grass, grown but rarely, is a native of liurope, but is 
now found, according to Beal,^ in North Africa, India, and 
North America. It is widely scattered but never popular, largely 
because of its bunchy habit of growth, its coarse stem and leaf, 
and its habit of crowding out other grasses but failing to com- 
pletely occupy the ground itself. It ripens with clover, and be- 
cause of its habit last mentioned it is better grown with that crop 
than grown alone. 

The Festucas. This useful genus of grasses, too little known 
by American farmers, covers some eighty species growing wild 
in the cooler regions of the Old World, The most common 
and well-known species are the large Fcstnca clatior, or tall 
fescue (pronounced fcs'ku), making excellent hay as well as 
])asture ; Fcstnca pratcusis, or meadow fescue, much like the 
above only slightly shorter ; and the little bunchy Fcstnca ovina, 
or sheep's fescue, of slight value except that it will grow in 
shady places, making a better sod in groves than will any other 
known grass. These grasses are much esteemed in England, 
but not yet extensively cultivated in this country, where we have 
scarcely commenced to realize the variety and value of many 
native grasses, not to mention the less-known introduced sorts. 
Neither timothy, blue grass, redtop, orchard grass, nor festuca 
is mentioned by Candolle in his history of the origin of our cul- 
tivated plants. This must have been clearly an oversight, as 
they were all in common use long before the date of his writ- 
ings {i(S<S2). The best book on our own grasses, native and cul- 
tivated, is "Grasses of North America," by Dr. W. J. Beal of 
Michigan Agricultural College. 

Miscellaneous grasses. The list of grasses that have been of 
use to man, and that have more or less come under cultivation, 
is too long for even mention here. Some of them, like wheat, 
oats, and sugar cane, are as fully domesticated as corn, while 
others, like the bamboo, are equally useful but rarely cultivated. 

^ "Grasses of North America," p. 109. 



2>,b nOMKSrKW I'Kl) ANIMALS AND I'LANIS 

In addition to all those should bo niontionod that honlo ot wiKl 
things glowing logothor antl constituting such great natural pas- 
tures as the original prairie range of our tn\ n western states and 
their equivalent on the ])ampas of South America. Uniortunately 
none of these natixe prairie grasses has been ilonieslicatetl, and 
most or all of them seem on the road to early extinction. Ihis 
seems a pity, especially when we recall the fact that neither tini- 
othv. blue grass, nor redtt>i\ nor vet an\- of the I'aiglish grasses, 
seems full\' adapted t(» the soil and climate of our prairie states. 
England is the great home o{ grasses, native and introduced. 
Its moist, cool climate is especiallv favorable to the hav and 
pasture grasses. Tiie tall oat. sweet \ernal. and the more use- 
ful festucas are all well known and all have been long recovered 
from the wild. We should do as much for ouv native grasses. 
and fame if not fortune awaits the man who will tiexcloi) from 
American native varieties even one really good ha\' or pasture 
grass suited to our conditions. 



CHAITl'LK XIX 
ORIGIN OF THE CULTIVATED LEGUMES 

Clover ■ Alfalfa • 'I'hc lentil • The bean ■ The pea • 'I'hc vetch • 'I"he lupine • 
The soy heaii • 'J'he cowpea 

A certain class of valuable plants is known as Icf^umes. 'i'hc 
distinguishing botanical trait of legumes is that they bear their 
seeds in pods, like peas and beans. The pod may be large and 
straight as in these familiar species, small and inconspicuous as 
in clover, or spiral-shaped as in alfalfa. In all cases, however, 
the seeds, whether large or small, resemble beans in splitting 
readily into two e(|tial j^arts, unlike corn or wheat or the seeds 
of the grasses generally. 

The jjhysiological distinction of leguminous plants is a very 
peculiar one, and one that is unknown in plants outside this 
particular family. It is this : there will nearly always be found 
growing on the roots of all legumes little nodules or warts called 
tubercles. These tubercles vary in size and shape from those 
of the red clover, which are not so large as the head of a 
pin, up to those of the soy bean, which are as large as a 
small |)ea. 

These tubercles are really the home of millions of micro.scopic 
plants called bacteria, which are parasitic upon the legume ; that 
is to say, they depend upon the host plant for food, and to 
that extent they are a disadvantage. This disadvantage is, how- 
ever, more than offset by .their exceeding usefulness in the 
matter of fertility. 

The agricultural distinction oi the legumes generally is that 
the bacteria within these tubercles have the power of talking the 
free nitrogen of the air and putting it int(; combinations that 
may be used as food for plants generally, a property that is not 

257 



258 i)(.)MKsrK:ArKi) animals and plants 

possessed, so far as we know, by (riiy ot/irr form of life. W'lien 
the student comes to realize, by the stud\' ol the fertility i)r()bleni, 
the difficult)' encountered by farmers in getting sufficient nitro- 
gen into the soil for ])rofitable growth of crops, then the real 
value of legumes as the onl\' natural and cheaj) source of nitrogen 
will be tull\- appreciated.' 

The nutriti\e signilicance of legumes lies in the high nitrogen 
and mineral content of both the grain and the stem. As the 
grasses are notable for tlieir carbon content in the form of (.'ither 
starch or oil, so the legumes are remarkable for their nitrogen 
and mineral content, esju'cially the former. The exceeding 
rarity of nitrogen gives it a high \alue foi' animal food as well 
as for fertility, all of which goes to ma]<e the legumes, agricul- 
turally speaking, the most distincti\'e famiU of |)lants ever do- 
mesticated. '-^ They make an ideal food for growing animals and 
a fair substitute for meat in the diet of man ; indeed, wlierever 
in the earth man has li\-ed with little or no llesh food he has 
drawn the moie hea\il\' upon the seeds of k'gumes. 

Clover. I'nder this gc-nerai name are grouped a \ariety of 
species more or less closely related. 

I. Trifolium pratc)isi\ the common red cloxcr, sometimes 
called purple elo\er or meadow trefoil, the latter from its three- 
parted leaf. 

^ Nitrogen costs in the markets, in the form of commercial fertilizers, ap- 
proximately fifteen cents a pound everywhere, but can be produced by legumes 
ill the proper rotation for next to nothing. 

- It is sometimes necessary to " inoculate " for the growth of legumes ; that 
is, to apply the proper bacteria. The bacteria are not the same for different 
species of legumes. For example, the clover tubercle will not develop on the 
alfalfa nor that of the pea upon the bean. If the particular species, say alfalfa, 
has never before been grown in a locality, its specific bacteria will likely not 
be present, in which case the tubercles will not form and no nitrogen will be 
taken from the air, such a jilanl becoming a heavy nitrogen consumer instead 
of a nitrogen producer. Inoculation then becomes necessary, for if the tuber- 
cles do not form, the legume is very exhaustive to land instead of benefiting 
it, and ultimately itself dies of nitrogen starvation. Inoculation is generally 
effected by scattering over the surface a little soil taken from a field in which 
the same legume has grown with well-developed tubercles. One to one and a 
half bushels per acre is sufficient if evenly applied. 



ORIGIN OF THE CULTIVATED LEGUMES 259 

2. Tiifolinm medhini, the mammoth, giant, or pea-vine clover, 
similar to the above, but with a growth so heavy that the stems 
no longer stand erect but lie creeping on the ground. 

3 . Ti'ifoliiun rcpcjis, the common white or Dutch clover, grow- 
ing wild in pastures everywhere in the northern United States 
and never cultivated. 

4. Trifoliiun hyhridum, the common alsike, similar to the 
above only larger, with a stronger stem and a touch of pink in 
the blossom, grown freely on moist ground for hay. 

5. Tiifoliiivi iiicariiatuDi, the crimson or Italian clover; a 
short erect species with a long, beautiful scarlet " head," mak- 
ing a small quantity of good hay but rarely used by American 
farmers, as the yield is low. 

These clovers are all leguminous plants and all serve the 
same purpose as soil restorers so far as nitrogen is concerned. 
The farmers' choice therefore turns on the question of yield 
and general usefulness. 

This rules out white clover as a cultivated crop, but it has no 
difficulty in maintaining itself as a wild plant,^ to the great ad- 
vantage of our self-sown native pastures. 

The scarlet clover is but recently introduced into cultivation. 
According to Candolle it exists wild in Gallicia, in Biscaya and 
Catalonia, as also in Sardinia, in Algiers, and in the valley of the 
Danube, in some of which places it may have been introduced 
since cultivation. It is surely indigenous in the neighborhood 
of the Pyrenees and also along the coast of Cornwall, where it 
is associated with a yellow variety which is truly wild also on 
the continent.'^ 

This shows how the process of domestication is sometimes 
long deferred, and may even be abandoned if, after trial, the 
species is not found worthy, as will more than likely be the 
case with this particular clover. 

1 In this respect it rivals Kentucky blue grass, with which it is often asso- 
ciated, an association clearly advantageous to the blue grass, whose supply of 
nitrogen is thereby better assured. 2 « Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 106. 



26o iH)MKsrK'Ari':i) animals and plants 

T. pnitcnsc and its nearly related form, 7". jiudimn, merge 
together in literature ; indeed, the latter is to be regarded as 
little more than a variety of the other, to which botanists have 
given a specific name more for convenience than from necessity. 
Neither of these, however, has been long cultivated. T. pratcuse 
grows wild througliout Tlurope, in Algeria, in Asia Minor, and 
in southeastern Siberia. It must have been long known to the 
people of luu'0])e, but its first known introduction into cultiva- 
tion was in Manders in the sixteenth century, from which it 
made its way into l'2ngland in 1630, thiougli the efforts of the 
Earl of Portland, then Lord Chancellor.^ There is no San- 
skrit or other Ar\an name either for clover, sainfoin, or alfalfa, 
from which CandoUe concludes tliat these people maintained no 
artificial meadows. 

Clover is then a new thing just out of the wild, and ready, 
indeed waiting, for the hand of the improver. Its many related 
species and their wide natural range lend confidence to the hope 
that out of this new and fresh material may arise most valuable 
varieties for agricultural purposes. 

Alfalfa {Medicago sativa), variously known also as lucern, 
I'^rench clover, purple medic, Chilean clover, Spanish trefoil, etc, 
has been long cultixated in westei"n I'nited Stales, where it was 
introduced by the Spanish in an early day. It was tried a few 
generations ago in New England and the eastern states along 
with other luu'opean " grasses," (|uite naturally bearing its 
Erench name, lucern. It did not, howewr. succeed. The gen- 
eral conclusion at that time was that this " child of the sun " 
required a deej), loose, sandy subsoil and was unable to thrive 
on the somewhat .stiff clays of that region. 

However, it gradually worked eastward from the i^'ar West, 
jumping the (ireat American Desert with some difficulty and 
delay, and finally, after all these centuries, was a few years ago 
well introduced into Mississijjpi valley agriculture, where it easily 
outyields any forage crop known, commonly affording three 

1 " (Jiigin of Cultivated I'lants," [). 105. 



ORKUN OI' 'I'm<: CliI/nVA TKl) I,K(UIMKS 261 

cuttings whose total weight ranges from lour to ;is lii^li as five 
or six tons per acre. 

We know now that the early failures of this plant were clue 
not to clay subsoils hut to tin- absence of its characteristic bac- 
terium, without which it could not draw upon the free nitrogen 
of the air ; thus it was thrown, like other crops, back upon the 
supply contained within the soil, vvliicli is insufficient, except in 
rare cases, to afford material for so heavy a feeder as this crop.^ 

This reason for its failure in the eastern states is supported 
by the fact that a few individual plants always succeeded. These 
were the ones that sprang from seeds which happened to have 
had a little of the inoculation from the soil in which the crop had 
been growing. Alfalfa, however, is a " clean-seeded crop." But 
little seed is sown, and it would take many years to establish so 
vigorous a feeder by the natural means of infection. The eastern 
farmers gave it up too soon. The Kansas people persisted till 
they succeeded, though it took a generation, h'ortunately for 
Illinois and the upj^er Mississippi valley, when the attempt was 
made there Dr. Hopkins of the University of Illinois succeeded 
in showing that the cjuestion of success or failure turned upon 
the presence or absence of the characteristic bacteria. After 
having conclusively shown this, he secured a ton of soil from 
an old alfalfa field in Kansas. With this he thoroughly inocu- 
lated an acre of the university farm, and from this all Illinois 
and much neighboring territory have been inoculated and the 
culture of this wonderful plant successfully introduced for the 
first time in the Middle West without the usual and otherwise 
necessary delay of waiting for the slow inoculation from seed 
and the long-continued failures necessarily involved.'-^ 

1 Alfalfa growing without inoculation is, of course, a nitrogen consumer, and 
as it lives for seven or eight years it will, long before that time, exhaust the 
nitrogen of most soils and die of starvation. 

2 Curiously enough it was learned that wherever the closely related plant, 
Mclilotits alba, or sweet clover, grew wild no inoculation was necessary, and 
later it was discovered that soil taken from a sweet-clover spot would success- 
fully inoculate for alfalfa, the first and only instance known in which the bac- 
teria of one species will grow upon another. Whether the bacteria arc identical 



262 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Though this newest of our crops did not come into our own 
agriculture until approximately the opening of the twentieth 
century, it is, after all, the oldest and most anciently known of all 
our legimiinous forage plants, excepting only the cowpea and 
soy bean, which are used mainly for their seeds. Alfalfa was 
known to the Greeks and Persians, who called it medica because 
it had been brought from Media at the time of the Persian War 
(470 B.C.), though it apparently did not come into general culti- 
vation until the first or second century after Christ. 

Candolle ^ has no hesitation in affirming that alfalfa is wild 
in several provinces to the south of the Caucasus, in various 
parts of Persia, in Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and Kashmir. Its 
seeming nonintroduction into China and India is a mystery, 
explainable only on the theor)- that the people preferred the 
plants that bore heavy seeds, or that they neglected it for 
some unknown reason akin to that which evidently deterred the 
Aryans from developing cultivated meadows. 

The student will not fail to be impressed with the remarkable 
significance of the fact that this oldest of all the cultivated for- 
age plants should have been the last to be introduced into our 
own agriculture, nor will he fail to note the scientific basis for 
the failure of our first attempts, which, had they been successful, 
might have greatly influenced the development of the eastern 
and the middle states. 

The lentil. This plant is evidently a puzzle to the botanists, 
by whom it is variously designated as Ervicm lens, Lens escnlenta, 
and sometimes it is put in the genus Cicer. This confusion is 
probably due in part to the fact that the plant has been long 
cultivated. It has already been remarked that man, when main- 
taining himself with a small amount of animal food, quickly 
turns to seeds of legumes as a source of nitrogen. 

or only closely related is not yet known, but the student should understand 
that the sweet clover, though classified as a distinct species and in a different 
genus, is after all, in many respects, almost indistinguishable from alfalfa, es- 
pecially in its earlier stages of growth. 
^ " Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 103. 



ORIGIN OF THE CULTIVATED LEGUMES 26 



o 



This probably accounts for the early cultivation of the lentil, 
which is one of the oldest of the legumes. It was cultivated by 
the later lake dwellers (bronze age) of Switzerland, was known 
by both the Greeks and Romans, and is mentioned freely in the 
Old Testament. Without a doubt Esau's famous mess of pottage 
was a dish of lentils.^ This plant does not seem to have entered 
into Anglo-Saxon agriculture, and in many respects seems on 
the road to abandonment. 

The bean {Phaseolus vulgaris), commonly called the haricot or 
kidney bean, was early credited to Asia. Candolle has shown, 
however, that it has not been found in the lake dwellings and 
that it was absent from the collection of leguminous seeds found 
by Virchow in the excavations at Troy, which included not only 
the common garden pea but the broad bean. He also calls atten- 
tion to the absence of any name for the bean in either Hebrew, 
Sanskrit, or Chinese, and adds that there are no evidences of its 
use in ancient Egypt.^ 

It has never been found wild in any country, and its origin 
seemed a mystery until somewhat recently, when several varieties 
of the true haricot bean were found in some Peruvian tombs 
near Lima. These tombs may not antedate the Spanish invasion, 
but this find, together with the fact that some fifty related species 
are American ^ and not one European, leads Candolle to conclude 

1 See Genesis xxv. Also "Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 322. 

" This must not be confused with the broad bean belonging to another 
species, Faba vulgaris or Jlcia faba, which in turn is not to be confused with 
the Lima bean [P/iaseolus liinatus), also native to South America, where its 
wild congeners abound in the Amazon basin and central Brazil, whence it was 
probably introduced by the slave trade into Africa where it now abounds. The 
true broad bean exists alone in the genus Faba, and is not mentioned by Gray 
in his manual of American plants, wild or cultivated. It is the common bean 
of Europe, a small-seeded variety of which was grown by the lake dwellers in 
their bronze age and by the ancient Egyptians, though no specimens are found, 
a fact thought to be due to their being considered unclean by the priests. 
Candolle considers this plant to have had a double center of development, one 
about the Caspian Sea, the other in northern Africa, such double domestication 
being frequent. See " Origin of Cultivated Plants," pp. 316-321. 

3 Several of these near relatives grow wild in North America, a number 
of them being native to Illinois ; for example, Phaseolus perennis', Phaseolus 



264 1H)M1:S11C\ 111) ANIMALS AND PLAN IS 

that the bean is a South Anicriean contribution, a conclusion 
tlial is stien,^lheneil h\ tlie tact that shortly after the Spanish 
tiiseo\er\' the bean was nientioned almost sinuiltaneoush' in 
several \vitlel\- separated regions ol the Old W'orkl. 

C'andolle sums up as follows : ' (0 P/iusi-oliis viili^iiris has 
not been loiii; eultixated in India, the southwest oi Asia, and 
lCg\pt ; (J) it is not certain that it was known in luu'ope be- 
fore the disco\er\ oi America ; {\) at this epoch the number 
of \arieties sudilcnh' increaseil in European gardens and all 
authors commenced to mention them ; (4) the majority of the 
sjxvies of the i^enus exist in Smith America ; (5) seeds ai")par- 
entl\' Ix-lon^inn' to the species ha\e been discox'crcil in Teru- 
\ian tombs of an imcertain ilate. iiitermixcd with man\' species, 
all American."' 

The pea. bins familiar [)lant exists in two species of interest 
to agriculture : 

1. The field pea [PisiiDi iirvcusc), grown both for its seed 
"^^d its forage as stock food. This species undoubtcdlv grows 
wild in the Mediterranean countries, possibl\- also in the south 
o{ Russia, and has been onh' recentiv introduced into cultivation. 

J. rhe garden pea [risiiiii sativum), generall\- rankeil as a 
seixirate species, but more than likeh ikwelopeil from the abo\c 
by cultix'ation ; at any rate it has been IcMigcr known to cultiva- 
ticMi than has the less-impro\ed held pea. It was cultivated by 
both the (i recks anil the Romans, and a small-seeded variety 
has been t\)und in the lake dwellings of Swit/eiiand and Savoy 
(age oi bronze). I'here seems to be no indication o{ its ancient 
cullixation in either l\gvpt or India. 

The vetch {Vicia sativa), or tare, a leguminous plant closelv 
related to the pea, is wild over nearlv all of Murope, in Algeria, 
and in Asia Minor, as are several related species, esju'cially 
l7(/(t tif//<n((i//<i, in this coimtr\-. 

i/i7Yr.u'/'t>/iu.\, /Viii.u'oliis /whv/iis, anil /Vi,i.uu>//ts paticijli'riis. See Clray under 
rhaseoliis. 

1 "Origin ol Culiivati'd Tlanls," p. VI3- 



ORKilN Ol- lilK CULTIVATED LKGUMKS 265 

Vetches were sown by the Romans, as they are now by the 
Enghsh, as cattle food, but there is no evidence of ancient 
cultivation. 

The lupine (Lupinus albus). This legume was cultivated by the 
ancient (irc-eks and Romans as cattle food, but, though it grows 
wild in many varieties in various parts of the world, including 
our own country, it has not been largely brought into use, and 
now it shows every sign of passing out of cultivation.^ 

The soy bean (Dolichos soja). This is a new crop to the west- 
ern world ; indeed, its introduction is but just being effected. 
It came to us from Japan, where, as in China, it has been culti- 
vated from the remotest antiquity for human food. It is certainly 
wild in Japan and most likely also in the regions to the south, 
where related species flourish even in the island of Java. The 
cY()\) is commonly called the soja, or soy bean, but it more closely 
resembles the pea, while the so-called cowpea is more like a 
bean. With us the crop is used exclusively for stock food, both 
grain and forage being useful. 

The cowpea {Dolichos chinensis). 'ihis and the above species 
are giving the botanists much trouble. They are here put into 
the same genus, but they are being moved about so much, some- 
times together and sometimes separated, that it is difficult to 
keep track of them. There perhaps is a growing disposition to 
separate them, but they are here put in the same genus awaiting 
the final decision of the botanists. 

All this, however, does not concern us now further than 
to show that lines on which classification is based are often 

1 'I'he student can hardly realize how rapidly species are recovered from the 
wild, cultivated for a time, and then abandoned for something better or at least 
for something else. Thus Darwin tells us, " Animals and Plants under Domes- 
tication," Vol. I, p. 336, quoting Ileer, that the wheat of the lake dwellers in the 
early stone age was a small-headed variety with grains not half the size of 
modern wheat. This lasted down to the " Ilelvetico- Roman age and then 
became extinct," giving place to better races in turn, up to the latest improved 
and best yielding varieties. It appears, too, that in general these ancient grains 
were inferior to the modern, whether wheat, barley, oats, or what not, and that 
with cultivation has been associated a steadily progressive development. 



266 DOMES'JICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

indistinct and difficult to establish, and to prepare the student 
for seeing both of these species described under various names. 
The cowpea has been recently introduced into our southern 
states from China, where it has been cultivated as human food 
from great antiquity. Like the soy bean this crop is fed freely 
to live stock in our country and consequently neither is used as 
human food.^ 

1 Man has a strange aversion to consuming the same grain he feeds his 
stock, and he positively refuses to eat it if it be a recent importation. The 
first question asi<cd of a new food plant is this: "' Is it for man or animal?" 
without thinking it may be good for both ; but the question once answered, the 
future of the thing is settled. This is why all efforts to introduce Indian corn 
into Europe to replace rye as human food have failed in the past and arc likely 
to continue to fail in the future. Even the pauper resists what he considers to 
be putting him on a level with the animals. 



CHAPTER XX 
ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS ^ 

The apple • The pear • The plum ■ The sour cherry • The peach • The 

apricot • The orange and the lemon • The banana • The pineapple • The 

grape • The strawberry • The raspberry • The blackberry • The melon . 

Miscellaneous fruits 

The list of fruits is an exceedingly long one. What we popu- 
larly call a fruit is, in general, not the seed, but rather the fleshy 
developed parts about the seed or seeds. For example, in the 
apple the whole pericarp or seed envelope takes on an extreme 
development, entirely and somewhat uniformly surrounding the 
seed capsules with a juicy fleshy growth. In the strawberry it 
is the receptacle on which the mass of seeds is attached that 
develops into the edible part. In the raspberry each individual 
seed is surrounded by a juicy growth similar to that of the peach, 
while the receptacle is left behind as the fruit leaves it, like a 
cap comes off the head. In the blackberry each seed develops 
its fleshy envelope, like the raspberry, but the receptacle comes 
off with the fruit, as in the strawberry. 

The apple (Malus malus). This best of all the fruits has 
been long in cultivation, specimens of several varieties having 
been found in the remains of the lake dwellers, previous to the 
bronze age. These were small fruits, however, measuring only 
from an inch to an inch and a quarter in diameter and undoubt- 
edly gathered from the wild. The fruit has therefore improved 
somewhat since these days, certainly in size and most likely in 
flavor as well. 

The apple was cultivated by the Greeks under the name of 
melon and by the Latins as mains, clearly the same name ; but 

1 See " Principles of Breeding," chapter on Mutation ; also " Evolution of 
our Native Fruits," by Bailey. 

267 



268 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

the Basque sagara indicates a name independent of Aryan influ- 
ence. Being an ancient Iberian people, the inference is warranted 
that the apple was cultivated there before the Aryan in\asion. 

Candolle makes the broad statement that the apple grows 
wild "throughout Europe, excepting in the extreme north," as 
well as to the south of the Caucasus and certain districts of 
Persia. At Trebizond, in Asiatic Turkey, the botanist Bourgeau 
is reported to have seen "quite a small forest" of apples, and 
there is good reason to believe that the tree grows wild in the 
mountainous parts of northwestern India. 

The readiness witli which the apple escapes from cultivation 
and " runs wild " makes it difficult to set original limits to its 
habitat, but botanists and fruit men are quite agreed, I think, 
that this great fruit is a native of southeastern Europe and the 
contiguous regions. 

Besides the malus proper we have the wild crab apples, grow- 
ing in various parts of the north-temperate regions. The Siberian 
crab {Pyriis baccatd) has not only been semidomesticated, but has 
been hybridized with the common apple, giving Pyriis prmiifolia, 
with a foliage, as the name indicates, resembling that of the 
plum. In this connection it ought to be remarked that the crab 
apples of all species and varieties are inferior to the common 
apple, fit only for cooking, or eating fresh when nothing better 
is available. The foliage and bloom, however, are so abundant 
and so beautiful that the crab has become a favorite tree for 
ornamental planting. 

America has no less than five native apples, all crabs. ^ The 
largest of these is the Oregon crab, which ranges from northern 
California to Alaska, and is a real tree, often reaching a height 

1 " Evolution of our Native Fruits," pp. 249-273. This fascinating booi< is one 
of Bailey's best, and should find a place on the shelves of every school library. 
It gives a full account of the wild native fruits of North America, and is not 
only a mine of information but a source of inspiration as well. Its reading 
cannot fail to inspire the student through the wealth of natural resources in 
plant life, and it is fortunate that the study could be made in America before, 
as in the rest of the world, it should be too late. 



ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 269 

of forty feet. The fruit is three fourths of an inch or less in 
diameter, is often gathered by the Indians, and was used by the 
early settlers in making jelly. 

Two species of wild crab are found in the Mississippi valley 
and eastward, one in the north {Pyriis coronaiia) and one in the 
south {Pynis mignstifolia), one in the prairie states westward 
{Pyrus loensis), and another known as the Soulard crab, named 
from the originator, J. G. Soulard of Galena, Illinois. The orig- 
inal was discovered in an apple thicket near St. Louis and sent to 
Mr. Soulard, who propagated it by grafting in a crab. Whether 
it is a mutant or chance seedling from real native stock, or 
whether it is a h}'brid with the common apple, is not of course 
known, but is generally, I think, considered as the latter. 

These apples are used only for cooking, especially jelly mak- 
ing, and occasionally for cider. They will not compare in quality 
with the Pyrus mains, although it should be understood that 
this species is propagated only by grafts, the seedlings being in 
most cases worthless. 

The Indians made what use they could of the wild apple, and 
upon the advent of the white man adopted the common apple 
and made much of it, both in North and South America, 
where remains of old Indian orchards still exist, even in so old 
a region as western New York. 

The pear (Pyrus communis). This fruit grows wild over the 
whole of temperate Europe and western Asia, and its closely 
related species, Pyrus sincjisis, extends into Mongolia and Man- 
churia. In its native country it grows as a forest tree, particularly 
in France, where the greatest improvement has been effected, 
and from whence most of our best varieties have come. America 
has no native pear. 

This fruit was cultivated by the Greeks and Romans and 
occasionally gathered with other wild fruits by the lake dwellers, 
but there is no evidence that it was cultivated by ancient peoples. 

The plum. Of this favorite fruit we have two broadly differ- 
ent strains, the European {Prunus doinestica), and the American 



2;o inmisiicA ri:n ammais and ri.AXis 

{/Viinns liinrriiitiitA, witli its xari.itions. titnn \\liii.h main oi our 
host cultivatoil xarii'tics aiv iIosioiuIihI. 

rimns wiar iuI(i\aUHl h\ \\\c Koniaiis. Init wiao not known 
to tlio laki" ilwclKas oi otlua ancient propU-. riu-\ lia\«.' In-iai 
(.■ulti\ati"il, loo, in China lioni (\\\\\ tiinrs, but tlu- orii;inal slock 
has not l>ccn ccrtainh iilcntilicik thi>UL;h ii'latcil s|H'oios i;"iv\v 
wiKl in the n(.M_i;hborhi>iHl oi the Caucasus aiul in the wi-sicrn 
iorcsts ol tlu' rhincsc iMnpirc. 

The phun was nati\c in all llu^ muthcrn I'nitcil Stati's, ami 
cvcrv piiMiccr has satislicii Ins "Iruit tooth" ami maccti his talkie 
main limes iVtMn the stock iouiul i;row in;; aloiii; the ri\er liottoms 
exervwiicie. Strai\i;el\ einni_>;h, accortlini; to l>aile\,' oui" liest 
authoiitx. wo commercial vaiiet\ has ever been ilexeioped fiiMU 
lUMthein nati\e stock east ot MicInL^an. but the wiKl plums to 
the south aiul west have been prolific ol' i;ooil varieties. This 
was probabh becausi> the culti\ateil I'.uropean sorts sucd'cilcil 
well in the north, makiui; resort to the wiKl unnecessarv, while 
from \'iii;inia south the\ weie not satistactoiA . licit.' resort was 
naturalK- back to the wild. Thus iu\'essit\- is the inoiluM" not 
onlv ot iinentiiMi but ol ilomestication ,is well. The Miner was 
pRHkiceil in renncssi-c ; the Robinson in North C'artiliiia ; the 
Waylaml "came up" in a plum thicki't in l\entuck\-; the (iokloti 
Heaut\' was " I\hiiu1 wiKl " m Texas ; the rottawattamie in Toiv 
nessee ; aiulthe Newman in KcntuikN . The W'olt Oi ii;inatiHl from 
seed gathered from w ild trees in Iowa, and the Kollin^stone was 
" fouml " on the banks oi RoUin^stone C^eek in Minnesota.''^ 

l*".\er\' bo\ knows that certain tii-es or bushes produce nuts 
or fruits much better than others oi the s.iine spi-cics. l'",\ia\- 
nei<;hboriuHHl that _<;r(nvs wilil fruit oi am kind has its trees 
or bushes which \ieKl fruit oi superior si/e or II.iwm, im both. 
It is liom such as these th.it m.un new \.iiictics ha\e sinuni;', 
.1 t.ict to be borne in mind when uc come to the discussion ot 
mutation later on. 

' " I'Aiiliition ol mil Cultiwiti-a I'liiils," p. 170. 
'■' " I'liiUMpios ot Hii'i-diuj;." p. 13J. 



OKK.IN <)l r|;i;i IVAI \A> I I'l ITS 271 

The sour cherry (Prunus cerasus). I tic st.uflcnt will not fail U) 
notice the close relationship j^ranted the plums anri the cherries 
iti pulling th(rse seemingly very different fruits in tfie same ^enus, 
1 liis illiislralcsone of the troubles of the hoUinists, for there also 
belong in the same ^ofjdly cf^mpany the ehokeeherries and the 
wild, black, arifl red cherries, that ^aow upon branching steins 
like ( urrants. 

While A merit a has some, of these sr;-called wild cherries, 
they h;tve never yielded to attempts at amelioration, and we are 
dependent up(;n foreign species for our fruits. 

The species given above is undoubtedly a native of Asia Minor, 
in the neighbf;rhood oH the (Jaspian, and its allied species, the 
bird cherry {I'rwms avium), from which f>ur whitr: and black 
varieties are developed, is wild in Persia and the hilly regions to 
the west as far even as Algeria. W(; will not enter into the dis- 
pute as to whetlier these two species are distinct, or whether the 
former has been developed fn^m the latter, such discussions 
liaving lost rrnu h of their interest in rec(;nt days, since we have 
learned how quickly new forms may rise from others and pre- 
sent differences that any botanist, not knowing the history, would 
call specific. 

Curirjusly enough, the cherry succeeds wonderfully as an 
ornamentiil plant in Japan, where it flowers [;njfusely but 
rarely fruits. 

The peach (Amygdalus persicu). This delicious fruit is a 
strange customer in our orchards. A kinrl of mean between a 
bush and a trect, it yields one of the most tof>thsome fruits 
known to the jjalate. Its strangeness consists in its relation to 
another fruit, the nectirine, which closely resembles the peach, 
excejjt that instead of the df>wny covering, it is smooth like 
the [jliim. 

'Ihe strange part of it is that peaches and nectarines often 
grow upon the same tree ; that is, a tree or a part of a tree 
that has always borne peaches may suddenly begin to bear nec- 
tarines, after which it may [produce either [reaches or nectarines. 



272 DOMKSTRWrKl) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

If these nectarines be planted, the seed will produce not peaches, 
as a rule, but nectarines.^ 

This observation of Darwin's, early confirmed by later obser- 
vations, came at a time when botanists, after much discussion, 
had about decided to put the nectarine in a separate species from 
the peach. The fact, however, that nectarines are often pro- 
duced on the same tree with peaches, and often by a limb that 
in other years also grows peaches, — this fact, when clearly 
proved, put a stop to the discussion, and not only ended a puz- 
zling debate, but showed also that si)eeific lines cannot always 
be clearly drawn. The nectarine is therefore recognized as a 
sport, or, more ]:)roperly, a mutant of the peach, because it 
arises not once but many times from that fruit. Incidentally 
we learn by this that new strains may arise from old stock 
repeatedly, and that certain combinations of plant and animal 
characters are constantly giving off new strains or sjx'cies '^ 
represented by essentially new combinations. 

As indicated by the name, the peach has been generally 
credited to Persia, from whence it was introduced into lun-opean 
cultivation shortly after the beginning of the Christian era.""^ 
This is not, however, proof of its Persian origin, neither is the 
fact of its being found wild in many districts of western Asia ; 
for, like the orange, it easily escapes, and when it does so the 
seedlings are exceedingly inferior. 

As no name for the peach is found either in Hebrew or San- 
skrit, Candolle is inclined to give the peach a Chinese origin, 
consigning it to that limbo of all unknown and untraceable 
things, central Asia. 

1 " Animals and Plants under Domestication," \'ol. I. p. ;,6i. 

^ The" term "species" is here used not in its narrow biolo}j;ical sense, hut 
in the wider sense of strains that are sufficiently constant to breed anionfjj 
themselves. 

' It is notable that the very ancient people seoini.il lo li;i\c confined their 
agriculture to the production of necessary grains, and thai ilio luxury of fruits 
and toothsome delicacies belonged to later times and more luxurious living 
generally. 



()RI(;iN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 273 

Darwin, however, presents some excellent arguments for 
assuming that the peach is exceedingly new upon the earth, 
and possibly has never been truly wild, but developed from 
the almond {Amygdalus communis), which grows wild, or half 
wild, in the warmer regions of the Mediterranean and in western 
Asia, This argument is extremely fascinating, and even more 
convincing now than in the days when it was first presented. 
It is too long to be repeated here, and should be read in the 
original. 1 liriefly, he finds that the space between the almond 
and its near relative, the peach, is not wide, and is often, more- 
over, nearly bridged by inferior specimens of the seedling peach. 
Not only is this true but occasionally the almond will bear un- 
usually fleshy fruit approaching a poor peach. Evidently the 
whole group — peaches, nectarines, and almonds — is an ex- 
ceedingly miscellaneous lot, not yet having settled down into 
distinctive lines, if, indeed, they ever do become fixed and 
measurably inflexible. In any event, until then they will con- 
tinue to bother the botiuiist. 

The apricot (Prunus armeniaca) . The apricot is related to 
the plum somewhat as the peach is to the nectarine, with two 
important differences. The apricot is essentially a plum with a 
downy covering, as the nectarine is a peach with the covering 
off ; but the smooth form is the more common in the plum, as 
the downy peach is more common than the smooth nectarine. 
Again, the apricot is known in the wild state as a distinct self- 
perpetuating species. No man has detected a mutation either 
way between the apricot and the plum, and yet the consistent 
evolutionist must recognize the same fundamental relations be- 
tween the two, except that in the case of the apricot and the 
plum the mutant is able to maintain itself indefinitely as a 
distinct species, which clearly the nectarine is unable to do, 
although nectarine seeds produce nectarines freely. The strain 
is evidently an erratic one, not easily maintained in nature for 

1 "Animals and Plants under Domestication," Vol. I, pp. 358-360. 



2 74 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

any considerable length of time, and would soon become extinct 
were it not constantly renewed. Whether the apricot is a mu- 
tant from the plum, or the reverse, we could now only speculate, 
but from general reasoning we should regard the apricot as the 
original stock and the plum the mutant.^ 

The orange and the lemon. These two popular tropical fruits 
belong to a tangled group covered by the generic name Citrus, 
and including also the lime and the shaddock. While their 
original has not been identified in the wild, their origin is uni- 
versally credited to eastern Asia, probably China. The principal 
strains of this genus are as follows : 

The citron {Citrus medic a proper), a large nonspherical fruit 
with an aromatic rind and a moderate amount of not very acid 
juice. 

The shaddock, or grapefmit {Citrus dccuviaud), large and 
round, juicy, slightly acid, extensively cultivated in southern 
Asia and in the tropics generally. 

The lemon {Citrus medica limon?iin), juice decidedly acid. 

The lime {Citrus medica acida), like the lemon, but much 
smaller ; juice very acid. 

The orange {Citrus aurantium), in two varieties, bitter and 
sweet, of which the latter is the cultivated, and of which the 
tangerine and the mandarin are minor strains distinguished by 
the easily separated rind, and for this reason often called " kid- 
glove oranges." 

The citrous fruits have a pronounced acid quality and a lurking 
tendency to be bitter, a tendency that crops out strongest in the 
bitter orange, which is wild, and in the shaddock, which is culti- 
vated.2 These fruits have been long in cultivation, as fruits go, 

1 This is because the mutant is more commonly destitute of some character 
that is present in the original. Nearly every pubescent species, too, has its 
smooth variety, which in some cases succeeds better than the original. The 
fact that we do not see the mutation is no argument that it has not taken 
place. Plain wheat, for example, has certainly arisen from the bearded, which 
is to be regarded as the original stock. See further in the chapter on Mutation. 

2 It may be added that the common orange easily escapes from cultivation, 
in which case most of the trees bear insipid fruit, a few bitter, and occasionally 



ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 275 

names for some of them being found in the Sanskrit. The mild 
acid varieties seem to have first attracted attention, the sweet 
orange seemingly being the most recent of all, though now the 
most popular in the West, where it has been greatly improved. 

The banana (Musa sapientum), literally the food of the wise, 
from an old tradition that this was the special food of the 
Hindu philosophers. Its near relative, the plantain, sometimes 
reckoned as a separate species, M7isa paradisiaca, is larger 
and coarser than the banana and generally requires cooking 
for the best results. 

The banana is without doubt native to the lower regions of 
southeastern Asia and the outlying islands, where it has been 
cultivated from antiquity. It was early known to the Greeks, 
Latins, and Arabs as an Indian fruit, but the only ancient 
names are in Sanskrit. The ancient Egyptians and Hebrews 
did not know the plant, which Candolle considers to be a sign 
that its cultivation cannot be regarded as remote. 

Whether the banana is also native to Africa and the New 
World is yet a matter of uncertainty. It was certainly known in 
both continents at a very early day, and Stanley, as well as earlier 
explorers, found the banana and the plantain both cultivated 
and wild in the depths of the Kongo. The plant almost never 
bears seeds. 

The pineapple (Ananassa sativa). Without doubt this is truly 
an American plant, native in the regions of the Orinoco and 
northward. It was of course unknown till the discovery of the 
New World, but has since spread rapidly over all subtropical 
countries. It is clearly the finest tropical fruit when had at its 
best, which is rare. 

The grape. The cultivated grape of to-day comes from two 
distinctly different sources, one the Old World, the other 
the New. 

one bears fruit of a good quality. The writer speaks from experience in this, 
for it was his habit in riding over the mountains in eastern South America to 
depend upon the wild orange for refreshment. The trees bearing good fruit 
could readily be told at a distance. 



276 



DOMESTICA'rF.I) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



Ihe grape has been cultivated from ancient times and is 
believed by many to be our oldest fruit. Noah, good old man 




P'iG. 4S. The wild persimmon of the South. With attention it 
might rival the grape in valuable varieties 

as he was, lost his head over the fruit of the vine,^ and he has 
been followed by many less worthy successors. 

The Phoenicians are credited with the introduction of the 
grape into Europe, where more than fifteen hundred varieties 

1 (Jenesis ix. 



ORIGIN OK CULTIVATED FRUITS 277 

are grown, all descended from a single species, Vitis vinifera, 
supposed to be indigenous to Asia. 

Curiously enough, these European cultivated varieties failed 
utterly to grow in the eastern United States,^ and our early fore- 
fathers suffered much extremity, or thought they did, by their 
inability to grow the European grape for wine, some good chron- 
iclers going so far as to express a doubt if the Creator had ever 
intended such a country iox human habitation. 

Failing 2 in the attempts to grow the European grapes, the 
settlers naturally turned their attention to the native species that 
clambered everywhere and that early attracted attention. Thus 
Captain John Smith, for example, in the quaint language of the 
times (1607- 1 609) writes of the wild grapes of Virginia that they 
" climbe the toppes of the highest trees" ; and speaking of the 
fruit, he says, " They bee fatte and the iuyce thicke : neither 
doth the tast so well please when they are made in wine." ^ From 
which we see that the attention of the time was mainly upon wine. 

"America is the land of the grape," says Bailey,^ who lists no 
less than twenty-two distinct species and thirteen varieties of 
grape native to the United States. The principal species are the 
following, which, directly or through their hybrids with the Old 
World wine grape, /'. vinifcra, have given rise to our common 
American cultivated varieties, distinguished by their round, juicy, 
many-seeded fruits as distinct from the fleshy European (now 
California) species : 

I. Vitis rotundifolia, the muscadine or Southern fox grape.^ 
Delaware to Florida and west to Kansas and Texas, and parent 
of the large musky Scuppernong. 

1 This was due, as we now know, to certain diseases that killed the leaves, 
probably the downy mildew and black rot. These grapes have been since grown 
out of doors in California for raisins, wine, and for shipping, and they appear 
on our markets now as the thick-meated " California grapes." 

- The story of this failure is finely told by Bailey in his " The Evolution of 
our Native Fruits." 

^ " Evolution of our Native Fruits," p. 4. 

•* Ibid., pp. 98-1 17. 

^ Called by (iray, Vitis vulpina. 



278 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

2. litis labrusca, the northern fox or skunk grape. New 
England and southward to Georgia along the Allegheny high- 
lands. Parent of the Catawba, Concord, Isabella, Worden, and 
most of our commonly cultivated varieties. 

3. Mtis viilpina, the river- bank or frost grape, commonly 
known as Vitis riparia. It is the common wild grape of the 
northern states east of the Mississippi, frequently hybridizes 
naturally with /''. labrusca eastward, where they overlap, and is 
the parent of the Clinton, Elvira, Pearl, and others.^ 

The unrivaled Catawba was found wild in the woods of 
extreme western North Carolina in 1842. It is the great 
grape wherever it can be grown, and its seedling, the Diana, 
is an oldtime favorite. 

A year later the Concord was discovered among some wild 
grapes that sprung up about the residence of Ephraim Ikill at 
Concord, Massachusetts. The writer saw the original vine a 
few days ago (August, 1908) still growing by the little old home- 
stead, just beyond the homes of Hawthorne and the Alcotts. 

From the Concord have sprung the Worden, Moores Early, 
Pocklington, Eaton, and Rockland, of which the two first are 
famous. In the same way the Clinton and many other strains 
have come directly from the wild within the lifetime of men 
yet living, and many, by hybridizing, have given rise to yet other 
successful varieties. In this way have all the varieties of grapes 
grown in eastern or middle United States been produced directly 
from the wild and within the last generation. 

The thick-meated European grapes were found to succeed in 
California, and they now reach our tables from the fruit stands. 
However high in quality and however valuable for raisins or for 
wine, I am sure that the average palate prefers the juicy varieties, 
developed though but recently from the native stock of the 
American forest. 

^ The student is urged to pursue further in the admirable work of Bailey, 
"Origin of our Native Fruits," pp. 1-126, the history, characteristics, and 
development of this greatest of American fruits. 



ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 279 

The strawberry. The United States, like Europe from Lap- 
land to the Mediterranean, was well stocked with wild straw- 
berries. A good start had been made in an early day toward 
developing garden varieties from this source, and the writer has 
eaten freely in boyhood of such varieties. 

Before final results were at hand, however, and before the 
best use had been made of this native stock, ^ a new species from 
Chile had been introduced into England, and from there to this 
country, where it has become the parent of all commercial varie- 
ties, wholly displacing the races developed from the native stock. 
The Chilean species extends into our own western mountains, but 
fails to succeed when brought directly from there to the East. 

The strawberry is widely scattered over the earth, a fact due 
partly to its cosmopolitan character and partly to the facility 
with which birds scatter the seeds, in which respect this fruit 
is equaled by few and surpassed by none. 

Notwithstanding all this, the strawberry is one of the newest 
of additions to cultivated plants, dating in all probability not back 
of the fifteenth century. It is difficult to realize how so luscious 
a fruit should be so long neglected, except upon the assumption 
that in its present form it has not long existed. 

The raspberry. Europe supports many varieties of Rubiis 
idcBiis, both red and white, but, like the grape, they all proved 
unsuited to American conditions, and, as before, recourse was 
had to the wild. Naturally the early efforts were directed to the 
red berries, following the European type, and later to the black 
caps, which upon acquaintance immediately took the lead. 

The real cultivation of native American raspberries dates, 
according to Bailey,^ not earlier than i860, when L. E. Allen 
of New York sent out two red varieties, Allen's Red Prolific 
and Allen's Antwerp, which were "merely accidental varieties of 

^ It is an open question whether the wild red strawberry of the eastern 
I'nited States is identical with the Fragaria vesca of Europe. The difference is 
evidently slight, but enough to lead some botanists to give it a separate name, — 
sometimes Fragaria 7'irgiiiiana and again Fragaria americana. 

2 " Evolution of our Native Fruits," p. 286. 



28o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

the wild raspberry of his locaHty." ^ By 1867, however, the red 
varieties had increased to six, the black caps had been intro- 
duced under eleven varieties, one of which was an albino, and a 
series of purple varieties numbering five had come into favor. 

The black cap has always been the American favorite among 
raspberries, and it is right that the name of the man to whom 
we owe its introduction should become a household word wherever 
the raspberry is eaten. Ic was Nicholas Longworth ^ of Cincin- 
nati, who, as Professor Bailey puts it, was " the same prophetic 
spirit that put American grape growing on its feet." The first 
of these black-cap varieties was the Everbearing, which, by 
Mr. Longworth's account, he " found" in Ohio in full fruit and 
brought it into his garden, where it supplied his table '" from 
the beginning of June until frost." 

The story of the raspberry is a story for the poetic historian, 
as it is also for the student of natural history and the farmer ; 
indeed, the story of the civilization of any great fruit or food crop 
is a chapter in the history of creation that any man may be 
proud to write and grateful to read. The temptation to dwell on 
fascinating details is almost overpowering, there is so much of 
human life and divine inspiration in it all ; but it is quite aside 
from the present purpose, which is only to give a hasty outline 
sketch supplementary to the chief purpose in hand. 

The blackberry. This close relative of the raspberry is not 
cultivated in the' Old World, and nothing in the genus Rnbiis is 
mentioned by CandoUe. The blackberry grows wild in P^uropc, 
but, like our huckleberry, has never been considered as a candi- 
date for cultivation. 

It gave much trouble in America before it would yield to the 
blandishments of the cultivator. Though flourishing remarkably 
in the wild over nearly all the eastern United States both north 
and south, it has been so shy of civilization that Professor Card 
has called it the "gypsy of the fruits," a name it undoubtedly 

^ " F.volution of our Native I'Vuits." pp. 287-2S9. 

■•^ The great-grandfather of the present ('ongressman Longworth. 



ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 28 1 

deserves, for much labor and expense were bestowed on these 
shade-loving berries before varieties were developed that would 
thrive at all in the open. 

But the troubles of the cultivators were fully equaled by those 
of the botanists, who have floundered in a sea of confusion in the 
endeavor to fix lines of classification that would separate and de- 
scribe all the forms of these exceedingly variable races, which 
range all the way from the high-bush blackberry of the northern 
"clearings " to the creeping dewberries of the open, both of which 
have finally yielded to cultivation and given useful varieties, but 
only well within the recollection of men yet in middle age. 

This confusion grew worse instead of better till Bailey (1898) 
untangled the matter and proposed names and descriptions, 
which, for the first time, fix the botanical character of our native 
and cultivated blackberries.^ 

The cultivated varieties trace to two strains of a single species, 
though many others are described and named, merging by almost 
imperceptible gradations into the dewberries. These two strains 
are the following : 

1. Rub lis iiigrobaccns, the Rubus villosits of many. This is 
the common high-bush, long-clustered, rich-flavored blackberry 
of the northern woods and clearings, extending as far south as 
the mountains of North Carolina and as far west as Kansas. 
The fruit of this species is the best of all the blackberries, and is 
preferred by all lovers of fruit, from birds on the one hand to 
bears and boys upon the other. It was exceedingly shy of civi- 
lisation, but has consented to produce a few varieties, of which 
the Taylor and Ancient Britain are considered by Bailey to be 
examples. 

2. Rubus nigrobaccus var. sativus, the short-clustered, loose- 
seeded blackberry of the open fields. Strangely enough, however, 

1 This matter is discussed here at some little length, partly to fix names, 
but more especially to show the student the troubles of classification, 
troubles that arise by the overlapping of closely related strains. The full 
text of Bailey's excellent work will be found in " Evolution of our Native 
Fruits," pp. 366-385. 



282 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

it is this wonderful " nondescript" berry, with its inferior fruit, 
that yielded best to cultivation and has given us the most of 
our cultivated varieties, of which the Snyder and Kittatinny 
are examples.^ 

Besides these there is the so-called "white blackberry" 
{Rubus iiigrobaccus var. albimis), an albino variety midway 
between the main strain and the sativns, with the habits of 
growth and quality of fruit closely resembling the former, but 
of especially fine quality.^ 

The melon. Dear to the heart and palate of every boy is 
the melon. It exists in two well-marked and distinct species, 
belonging even to different genera : 

I. The muskmelon, or cantaloupe {Cucjunis viclo), is certainly 
native both in Beluchistan and westward, on the coast of Guinea, 
and in central Africa and eastward. In the wild the fruit varies 
from the size of a plum to that of a lemon, and is commonly 
extremely insipid. This generally unpromising character is 
probably responsible for the fact that the melon was not culti- 
vated in early times ; indeed, it was not until our own day that 
really excellent varieties have been established, — all of which 
goes to show the power of cultivation and selection to work im- 
provement, and that the wild plant often gives little indication 
of its hidden possibilities, which quickly appear when once they 
are unlocked and liberated by generous opportunity. 

1 A -few cultivated varieties, like the Wilaon and Rathbun, are considered 
to be hybrids between the blackberry and the dewberry {Kiibits villosus). 

2 Burbank is erroneously credited with having " produced" the white black- 
berry in the sense of having created it. Now the white blackberry is a strain, 
probably a mutant, that frequently arises, as every woods boy knows, and 
Mr. Burbank's " production " consists in cultivating one or more of the many 
thousands of such " sports " produced by this great berry. 

The student should understand that nearly everything has its albino (white) 
strain, which is altogether likely a mutant from the main stock. Thus we have 
the white blackberry, strawberry, raspberry, currant, apple, as well as the white 
rabbit, deer, horse, cow, pig, sheep, and so on, of practically all species. With 
the sheep, the white is the favorite stock, which was also true of the pig till 
the opening up of the corn belt and the origin of the Poland China breed, 
which happens to be black. 



ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 



28' 



2. The watermelon {Citrulhts viilgaris). For once there is 
no doubt of nativity. The watermelon is a characteristic contri- 
bution of the dark continent, and our colored brother evidently 
comes honestly by his natural appetite for this luscious fruit. 
It belongs to central Africa on both sides of the equator, where 
Livingstone " saw districts literally covered with it, and the sav- 
ages and several kinds of wild 
animals eagerly devoured the 
wild fruit," ^ which is some- 
times, but not generally, bitter. 
This fmit was certainly culti- 
vated by the ancient Egyptians, 
but there is no proof of antiquity, 
either botanical or philological, 
except in northern Africa. 

It would be interesting, in- 
deed, to follow the futures of 
other wildlings under civiliza- 
tion, such as the cucumber, the 
pumpkin, and the squash, but 
it is a long story and would 
lead us far afield. Inasmuch 
as our chief purpose here is to 
indicate rather than to exhaust 
a field, we must content our 
selves with a hasty glance at what is really a fascinating prospect. 

Miscellaneous fruits. There are, however, a number that 
merit further study. The gooseberry and the currant, both in- 
troduced from Europe, and both also wild over extensive areas 
of our own country,^ and which have furnished cultivated varie- 
ties, are other examples of the fact that many species are 

1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 263. 

2 The writer as a boy knew two kinds of wild gooseberry, the " prickly" 
and the plain, both growing freely in the woods of Michigan. The latter was 
often brought into the gardens of the pioneers and successfully cultivated, 
furnishing, in some cases, the principal fruit of the pioneers. 




Fig. 49. The huckleberry - 
enough in the wild 



good 



284 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

wide-ranging races that may be, and likely are, subjected to 
cultivation at very many independent centers. 

Added to these are many undeveloped possibilities in unculti- 
vated fruits, like the huckleberry and the cranberry, which latter 
is coming into semidomestication in order to furnish the demand 
that goes with the Thanksgiving turkey. 

The tropics afford an almost endless variety of fruits, some of 
them only just rescued from the wild. The forests and jungles 
of such formative regions as the Amazon valley abound in fruits 
as well as nuts in the greatest profusion and of the greatest 
variety. The world is being ransacked now for new and valuable 
varieties, either cultivated or wild, and very much of the work 
of domestication of plants is still going on even in our own day, 
though it is a question whether a new animal will ever be added 
by domestication. It looks rather as if in respect to animals we 
should be restricted in our possessions to what we can achieve 
out of the materials already in hand. 



CHAPTER XXI 

ORIGIN OF FARM AND GARDEN VEGETABLES AND 
MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 

The potato • The sweet potato ■ Miscellaneous tubers ■ Edible roots • The 
onion ■ The beet • Manioc, or mandioca • The turnip • Miscellaneous roots ■ 
Vegetables cultivated for their foliage • Cabbage • Celery • Lettuce • Aspara- 
gus ■ Plants cultivated for beverage ■ Coffee • Tpa • Mate • Plants grown 
for sedative effect • The poppy • Coca • The betel • Tobacco • Fiber plants • 
Cotton • Flax ■ Hemp • Ornamental plants • Weeds 

Many plants have a habit of sending out not only the upright 
stems that bear leaves, but also others that run along just above 
or just beneath the surface of the ground, and, by branching or 
sending out roots at the joints here and there, are able to prop- 
agate themselves without the help of seeds. Strawberries do 
this with " runners" above the ground. Quack grass and Canada 
thistle do the same, except that the stems run just below the sur- 
face, a habit which makes these two weeds peculiarly difficult to 
eradicate. Blue grass has the same habit, but, being valuable in- 
stead of worthless, we count the custom a virtue and not a vice. 

In a few plants these underground stems greatly thicken, and 
these thickened stems, called tubers, are favorite foods, generally 
as a source of starch. 

The potato (Solanum tuberosum). The most common and the 
most valuable of all plants of this order is the ordinary Irish 
potato. Its name " Irish" is a misnomer,^ as it is truly an Ameri- 
can product, its wild progenitor still being common along the 
coast of Chile and in the higher elevations to the northward. 
Several closely related species abound in. the highlands of South 
and Central America as far north as Mexico, and a not distantly 

1 Bestowed from the fact that the cessation of the periodic famine in Ireland 
dates from the introduction of the potato. 

28s 



286 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

related species is found as far north as Colorado, — the Solamim 
rostratum} 

At the discovery of America the potato was cultivated all 
along the Andean slopes and plateaus as far north as Granada. 
It was introduced into Europe by the Spaniards, and very likely 
from them it made its way to the United States, as it seems 
not to have been known to the Indians until after the discovery 
of this country by Europeans.^ 

This tuber is one of the cheapest and most important foods 
for man, and it has done more, perhaps, than any other plant to 
make famine in the western world practically impossible. It 
made little headway, however, until recent years, for as late as 
the time of the American Revolution but two varieties were 
known in England, a white and a red. Latterly, however, great 
improvements have been made, largely within the lifetime of 
men yet living. Varieties are now counted by the hundreds, and 
any number of new ones can be produced at will, so freely does 
the species vary. 

The sweet potato {Ipomoea batatas). This is not a true potato 
at all, but belongs to the morning-glory family, whereas the 
potato belongs to the nightshades ; moreover, the fleshy parts 
that are eaten are true roots, and not thickened underground 
stems or tubers like those of the true potato. 

The origin of the sweet potato is mysterious. It was un- 
doubtedly found in cultivation in the New World. Moreover, of 
the fifteen nearest related species, all are found wild in America, 
eleven of these are found only there, while four are found also in 
the Old World. It was certainly not known in Europe until after 

1 This native sand bur was the original food plant of the Colorado potato 
beetle, but when the potato reached that region the insect at once adopted it 
as a new host, and it spread rapidly eastward over all the United States, 
illustrating how quickly a wildling may change its habits and greatly profit by 
a new food plant. 

2 Sir Walter Raleigh is often credited with having introduced both tobacco 
and potatoes into England, having brought them from Virginia, but this does 
not mean that the potato was native there, nor that this was the first introduc- 
tion into Europe. 



MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 287 

the discovery of America. It was unknown to both the Romans 
and the Arabs, and was not introduced into Egypt until about 
a hundred years ago. On the other hand, Chinese hterature 
mentions the cultivation of this plant as early as the second or 
third century, all of which is argument for an Asiatic origin. 

In the opinion of the writer these are ample grounds for 
assuming a double origin of this most useful plant. The simi- 
larity between the flora of eastern Asia and certain portions of 
America is one of the best known facts in natural history. So 
valuable a plant as the sweet potato would attract attention any- 
where, for all the preparation needed is roasting. Accordingly it 
would at once be brought into cultivation by any progressive race, 
and there is every reason why widely diffused species of this kind 
should be domesticated not once but many times, and their culti- 
vation spread not from one but from many centers. I am of the 
opinion that it is both unnecessary and unscientific to assume a 
single origin for every cultivated plant. Species like the oaks, 
growing widely scattered over the earth without the aid of man, 
are proof of the wide diffusion of certain races by wholly natural 
causes. Given now this same wide diffusion with evident natural 
value to man, and we have all the conditions necessary for do- 
mestication and cultivation, not once merely, but wherever they 
and the needs of man come together. A good example of all 
this in modern days is ginseng, which is native in Arabia, 
China, and the United States. The Chinese prize this plant for 
its medicinal properties, and as their supply is short, we are not 
only hunting it out of the wild in the eastern hills of our own 
countr)^, but are beginning to cultivate it for export. 

Miscellaneous tubers. True tubers are not plentiful. The 
onion is not a tuber, being the thickened base of the upright 
stem. Beets and carrots are not tubers, being the true top or 
main root greatly enlarged. Peanuts are not tubers but true 
seeds, this plant having the curious habit of thrusting its blos- 
soms, after fertilization, into the earth to mature and ripen the 
seed under ground. 



288 DOiMESTlCATEn ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Edible Roots 

As has been indicated, certain roots have the habit of storing 
large quantities of starch, which greatly enlarges tiieir size and 
acts as food material later on. Such plants commonly act as 
biennials in the temperate climate, growing and storing food 
one year, and sending up a stem and producing seed the next.^ 

The onion {Allium cepa). This savor\' root has been known 
from early times. The Cireeks and Romans knew several varie- 
ties, as did the Eg}^ptians. It has also long been cultivated in 
the various countries of southern and eastern Asia, under vari- 
ous names that have no similarity or other sign of philological 
connection. 

The species has been found wild in western Asia in various 
localities, ranging from Palestine to Beluchistan, a fact which 
seems to satisfactorily settle its eastern origin. 

On the other hand, both the onion and the leek were found 
common in America, all of which seems to be a puzzle to Can- 
doUe, who remarks that species of the genus Alliuni are exceed- 
ingly rare in America. On this point he could not have been 
well informed, for if the number of related species be few, they 
are certainly w^ell and widely diffused. All pioneers will testify 
to the early abundance of the common wild leek {Allium tricoc- 
C2im), to the great detriment of the butter of those days,"-^ as we 
of our own time know the wild onion of various species to be 

1 In tropical countries this seed production need not wait till the second 
year, but may proceed directly upon the accumulation of sufficient store of 
food for the rapid maturing of seed. Here all distinctions as to annual, bien- 
nial, and perennial disappear. The century plant has the same habit, except 
that the food material is stored in the leaves rather than in the roots, and very 
much more than a single year is required. It does not require, however, as the 
name indicates, a full century before bloom. In most cases it is probably nearer 
a decade. 

2 The cows running in the woods and wild pastures ate freely of the wild 
leeks, which often were so abundant as to give a grassy-green appearance 
to the forests in the early spring. This so strongly affected the milk and 
butter with the disagreeable flavor of the leek as often to make the product 
unsalable, indeed uneatable. 



MlSCKLLANf:OUS PLANTS 2S9 

widely scattered. Professor Asa Gray lists seven species of 
Alliiini as growing wild in northeastern North America, only 
one of which is naturalized from Europe. May not this also be 
a case of multiple domestication, if the writer may coin a term 
to indicate what he believes to have been a common thing in 
the early days of civilization } 

The beet {Beta vulgaris). Whether as a garden delicacy or a 
food for stock, this plant is no mean addition to our gardens 
and fields, but as a sugar plant it ranks as of prime importance. 
It is the one plant that has made sugar production possible in 
the temperate zones. Beginning with but 3 or 4 per cent of 
sugar, by careful breeding it has been raised in sugar content 
till whole fields average 14, and single specimens have been 
found above 25 per cent. This achievement is mainly the re- 
sult of German enterprise, and shows what science can do 
when applied to the ordinary affairs of life.^ 

The beet yet grows wild in the Canary Islands and all along 
the Mediterranean, and as far east as Persia and Babylon. It 
was cultivated by the Greeks and Romans, though its varieties 
have been greatly increased of late ; indeed, it seems to be one 
of these fortunate species that is growing in favor, just as salsify 
is as certainly dying out. 

Manioc, or mandioca [Manihot utilissima). This plant, of great 
significance in tropical agriculture, would not be mentioned here 
except for the fact that it is almost undoubtedly another of the 
American, and therefore comparatively late, contributions to the 
agriculture of the world, and except for the further fact that it 
is the source of our tapioca of commerce. The arguments for 
its western nativity lie in the fact of its comparatively ancient 
cultivation in tropical America, and the further fact that the 

^ This was not the result of accident, but of deliberate determination. The 
Germans felt the disadvantage of depending solely on the tropics for their 
sugar supply, and government chemists were set at work to discover, if possible, 
a sugar-bearing plant that could be raised in their latitude. The result is that 
beet sugar can compete in price with the cane, and the quality is not only 
equal but identical. 



290 DOMKSriC AIKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

fortv-two known species of liupJiorbiacca, ti> whieli the manioc 
belongs, are all found wild in South America, and not one of 
them in the Old World. ^ than which no argument is better. 

The turnip {Brassica campestris). Ihis old favorite of the 
gardens, the white turnij). and the English held swede are but 
different varieties of the same sixxMes. When we attempt to 
study them from our present standpoint thev introduce some 
interesting facts, not the least of which are the puzzles of the 
botanist. 

The turnip is closely related to the cabbage and caulitiower 
{Bmssiiii olcracca), the mustard, both black and white {Brassica 
;!i^'-ra and Brassica alba), and the rape {Brassica //a/>r/s), so 
valued for sheep pasturage as to constitute in man)' sections a 
staple farm crop. 

All these plants grow wild in southern Europe and Siberia, 
and are especially abundant in England, Holland, Sweden, 
Denmark, and Finland. Thex" have evidentlv but recently been 
introduced \n{o cuh'wwUon, which tallies well with their half- 
wild behavior and their tendencv to develop markedly distinct 
varieties, as do also caulitiower, Brussels sprouts, kale, and 
broccoli, — all from cabbage. 

Miscellaneous roots. The list of roots is not long, but is 
hardly of sufficient impoitance for detailed treatment in our 
limited space. The carrot and the parsnip are both of conse- 
quence, and their wild congeners are common in Europe. The 
radish, though a garden vegetable, is better able to maintain 
itself in the wild than is almost any other of ouv cultixated 
plants, as any one can testify who has had occasion to deal with 
it as a weed. Like the horse-radish, it is a native of luirope, 
where it has long been eulti\ated. Salsif\', which grows wild 
along the Mediterranean, is less cultixated than formerh-, and 
seems to be one of those plants that is being abandoned and 
destined to extermination unless it can maintain itself in the 
wild, which it seems well able to do. 

1 " Origin of Cultivated Plants, " p. 62. 



MISCKLLANKOUS PLANTS 29 1 

VEfiETAHI.KS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FoLIAfiE 

Cabbage (Brassica oleracea). I'of^ether with its mutants, cauli- 
flower, i<alc, and lirusscls sprouts, etc., this useful vegetable 
holds a prominent place in our garden agriculture. Cabbage 
grows wild in the south of England and Ireland, the Channel 
Islands,^ and in Denmark. Its common name is Slavic (Kab), 
its botanical is Keltic (Hresic), and all facts go to show that its 
introduction, which is recent, proceeded from northwestern 
luirope as a center. 

Celery (Apium graveolens). According to Candolle, this plant 
grows wild in damp places over a wide area, extending from 
Sweden to Algeria, Egypt, and Abyssinia, and in Asia from the 
Caucasus to Beluchistan and the mountains of British India. It 
has been known to cultivation since early times, being mentioned 
in the "' Odyssey." 

Lettuce {Lactuca scariola). This plant, like parsley, grows 
wild in southern Europe, though it has a wider range, extending 
from the Canary Islands to Mesopotamia. It was formerly, 
indeed until recently, raised in the gardens by thick seeding, 
each plant sending up a few broad and tender leaves. Latterly^ 
however, this plant is being raised in a headed form like cabbage, 
with many close-clustered leaves that become well bleached and 
very tender. 

Asparagus. This genus includes something like one hundred 
and fifty species, mostly native of southern Africa and southern 
Europe. When used at all, it is largely for ornamental planting, 
but the common garden species {Asparagus officinalis) has been 
cultivated for at least two thousand years for its young and 
succulent stems. These stems are small in the wild, seldom 

1 Darwin states that in the island of Jersey the cabbage sends up a stalk to 
the height of sixteen feet. He adds that the woody stems are not infrequently 
ten to twelve feet in height, and are used for rafters. This makes it easy to 
see how the Brussels sprouts have developed, and to understand that many of 
the Crucifera are developed into trees. The cabbage itself is indeed a heavy 
shelter of broad leaves growing on a greatly shortened stem. 



292 l)()MP:STKATEn ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

equaling a half inch in diameter, but in cultivation they some- 
times attain the size of the wrist, with high tiavor. 

To these might be added such garden crops as spinach, a 
native of Persia, and cultivated from ancient times ; New Zea- 
land spinach ( fitrcri^oiiicr cx/^df/sif), which is our only contribution 
from that far-off country, brought to Europe by Captain Cook ; 
chicory, which is wild over most of Europe and in western and 
northern Asia, and, in both the cultivated and wild state, used as 
a substitute for coffee ; and man\' others, mere mention of which 
would too greatlv extend our s])ace. 

Plants cli.tivatkd for Hkveka(;k 

Coffee {Coffea arabica). ibis favorite of the Anglo-Saxon race, 
and of western races generally, grows wild in Abyssinia, where 
it has been used from time immemorial. This does not mean, 
however, that it has been long under cultivation, but rather that, 
like ginseng, it was hunted wild and reduced to cultivation onlv 
when the natix'c suj^ply failed. The name indicates Arabian 
origin, but wliile a fine cjualitN" is produced in that country.^ 
it has never been found trulv wild. A larger and stronger-grow- 
ing coffee is the Liberian coffee {Coffea liberies), native in that 
country and subjected to the same uses. 

Tea {Thea sinensis). Whether green or black, the species is 
the same. Its use is of ver\- ancient date in China, being men- 
tioned as early as 2700 b.c. It is used both wild and cultivated 
in Cochin China, and the best of authorities believe it to be 
a native of the '" mountainous region which separates the plains 
of India from those of China."- 

Mate {Hex paraguayensis). This plant (pronounced ma! to) is a 
native of southeastern South America, where it has long been 

1 This is the true Mocha, a small-grained, very fine-flavored variety. The 
common Mocha of commerce grows, however, on the same tree with other 
coffee. It is simply the small round bean growing alone at the end of the twig, 
whereas most of the berries grow as twins, with the flat surfaces together, 
forming a kind of bean. Even this Mocha is superior to other berries on the 
same tree. 2 « Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 119. 



MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 293 

used, as has tea in China, where the wild product is yet more 
common than the cultivated, and where great quantities are con- 
sumed, as well as exported to Europe, under the name of Para- 
guay tea. It makes a pleasant drink as the writer remembers it 
in its own country, though, of course, to one not "to the manner 
born " it would be considered inferior to either tea or coffee. 

Plants grown for Sedative Effect 

In all countries and times the human animal seems not to 
have been quite happy till he could either find or produce some- 
thing that would work directly upon his nerves. And he does 
not seem yet to have entirely freed himself from what must, 
when considered in the light either of philosophy or of evolution, 
be regarded as a confession of weakness. 

This craving exhibits itself in two directions: first, as a 
stimulant, exciting the nerves to unusual activity, giving an arti- 
ficial exhilaration, followed in extreme cases by a deep lethargy, 
largely destitute of consciousness ; and second, something to 
act as a sedative, dulling the sensibilities and giving a kind of 
soothing freedom from care which is akin to sleep, yet without 
loss of consciousness. 

Alcohol is the one great stimulating agent, and, as was once re- 
marked by the late Professor Steel, who had traveled extensively 
among the primitive peoples of many lands, no tribe is too stupid 
or too lazy to make at least a dilute form of alcohol by the fer- 
mentation of some kind of vegetable juice. 

P'or the sedative effects resort is had to a variety of vegetable 
substances, which are widely cultivated and will continue to be, 
at least until man pretty generally learns that it pays best in the 
long run to maintain a normal existence day by day, and not to 
tamper with the most delicate part of his anatomy, the nerves.^ 

1 It may be remarked in passing that the basis of all patent medicines is 
either a stimulant by the use of alcohol, or a sedative through some of the 
well-known materials that have a more or less pronounced stupefying effect. 
If the nerves are stimulated, the patient seems to have a new lease of life ; if 



294 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



The poppy {Papaver somniferum) . This is the plant cultivated 
for its opium, which is extracted from the milky juice, and from 
which morphine is made. Opium produces a deliciously dreamy, 
half-conscious state, out of which the subject wakens with re- 
luctance, and into which he is most like!}' to again submerge 
himself. If he surrenders to this most dangerous drug for a 
little time, he is most likely to turn out an " opium fiend," w'ith 
little prospect for the future, for experience shows that these 
unfortunate people will practice the cunning of the keenest 
lunatic to possess themsehes of the drug, when once the habit 
is formed. 

The opium poppy is native not to China but along both 
shores of the Mediterranean, where it has long been cultivated, 
even since the time of the lake dwellers. It spread into Arabia 
and India, where it is eaten, not smoked, and finally reached 
China in the neighborhood probably of i 500 a.d. These people, 
with malevolent instinct, learned to smoke the drug, in which 
way an exceptionally strong effect is produced. To the credit of 
modern China the cultivation of this poppy is being prohibited. 

Coca {Erythroxylon coca). This is a narcotic plant growing 
wild in the Peruvian Andes, and is chewed by the natives with 
a little unslaked lime, producing an effect akin to that of opium. 
The alkaloid cocaine, which is extracted from the leaves, is, like 
opium and morphine, a dangerous drug, except in the hands of 
the physician, and is subject to the same abuse. ^ The leaves 
are exported in enormous amounts (over thirty million pounds a 
year), more than ten million people being addicted to the use 
of the drug. It is not yet cultivated, so far as is known to the 
writer, but a demand like this will bring cultivation wlicn the 

they are dulled by a sedative, he feels soothed : in either case he feels better 
and buys more medicine. Such medicines are known to the trade as " re- 
peaters," because the more is used the more is needed, and the appetite once 
formed is insatiable. 

^ Some of the so-called " celery compounds," patent medicines of a few 
years ago, depended for their effect upon cocaine as does one of the popular 
and widely advertised drinks of to-day. 



MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 295 

wild supply begins to fail/ unless in the meantime humanity 
learns wisdom. 

The beteL Closely akin to the above in effect is the betel nut, 
almost universally chewed by the natives of the Malay Peninsula 
and the outlying islands, as is evidenced by their blackened teeth. 
The first effect is exhilarating, but later lethargy ensues. Habitual 
users become toothless, often as early as at twenty-five years of age. 

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). This plant serves exactly the 
same purposes to its users as does the opium poppy, the coca, 
or the betel nut to theirs, except that it is less powerful. It is 
chewed, smoked, and snuffed ; indeed, human ingenuity seems 
to be exhausted in devising ways of bringing these sedatives in 
contact with the nerves. As in the case of opium, smoking 
undoubtedly succeeds in producing more complete effects than 
does either chewing or snuffing. 

The plant is undoubtedly of American origin, though this 
particular species is not known in the wild state. However, it 
was unknown to the Old World until after the discovery of 
America, Arabians and others having drafted into service other 
similar narcotic plants from their own country, all of which were 
abandoned upon the introduction of the new, stronger, and 
therefore favorite, American narcotic. 

When this country was discovered the South American In- 
dians both chewed and snuffed,^ while from the Isthmus north 
they smoked, but neither chewed nor snuffed. The use of to- 
bacco was therefore well-nigh universal in America before it was 
known in the Old World. Added to this is the fact that of the 
fifty species of Nicotiana, only two are found in the Old World, 
leaving to America the undoubted, if doubtful, honor of supply- 
ing to the world this new and now widespread narcotic favorite. 

1 The coca must not be confused with the useful cacao ( Theobroma cacao), 
native of the Amazon, from the seeds of which chocolate and cocoa are made, 
nor must it be taken for the equally useful coconut, which is the product of a 
palm that is native to the tropical regions of both the Old and the New 
World, and that seems to have had a wider range formerly than now. 
2 PIxcept those of the La Plata district, which had no narcotic. 



296 DOMESTKATKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

I^^iRER Plants 

The need for clothing, covering, and cordage, beyond the 
available supply of wool or other animal fiber, early led to the 
cultivation of plants that bore fiber, either about the seed or 
along the stem. Oi these we have quite a variety. 

Cotton (Gossypium herbaceum). This is the one great fiber 
plant of the world. The seed is surrounded by a fine, strong 
lint, from three fourths to two and one-half inches in length. It 
is not so fine as silk, nor so lustrous, and, not being a contin- 
uous thread, it is not so strong, but it is an excellent substitute ; 
especiallv is this true of some of the new long-stai)le varieties. 

Common cotton is native to soutiieastern Asia, wiience its cul- 
tivation seems to have spread to China in the ninth or tenth cen- 
tur)', to Greece and southern Eiu-ope in the time of Alexander, 
and thence to the United States, wiiere it arrived something less 
than one hundred and fifty years ago. 

Aside from all this, supported alike by botany, histoiy, and 
philology, the remarkable fact remains, that when America was 
discovered cotton was found under cultivation in the West India 
Islands, from Mexico to Peru, and in Brazil. The species is con- 
sidered to be different {(Tossypimn harhadcfisc), though it has 
the same yellow fiowers with red centers. The famous sea- 
island or long-staple cotton is considered as a strain of C/. baf- 
badcusc, rather than of (r. Iicrbacciim, which, however. co\'ers 
the principal varieties of cotton raised in the states. 

With us the cotton plant is a true annual, requiring reseeding 
every year, but in warmer countries it may live for a niunber of 
years, attaining of course considerable size.^ 

Flax (Linum usitatissimum). This is a most useful plant, now 
grown not onh' for its fiber, but for its seed, as a source of oil '^ 

1 At Para the writer " cliinbed into " a " cotton tree " about twelve feet high 
and several years old. 

- This is the linseed of commerce, used in painting. Linseed meal is the 
ground seed before the oil is extracted, while linseed cake and oil cake are the 
residue after the oil is removed. Both are excellent feed. 



MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 297 

and as stock food. Flax has been grown from the greatest an- 
tiquity. It was a great crop with the Hebrews and the ancient 
Hindus. The mummy wrappings of the Egyptian tombs were 
of hnen. Flax has been found in a tomb of ancient Chaldea, 
older than the city of Babylon. The lake dwellers of Switzer- 
land made use of it, and all evidence goes to show that it is one 
of the oldest of cultivated plants, hoary with age as it is heavy 
with honors. 

The flax of the lake dwellers appears to have been the peren- 
nial species, Linum augiistifolium, which is yet wild in the 
Mediterranean region, but was later displaced by the annual 
species, Limini usitatissimii'in, which has been cultivated for at 
least four or five thousand years, and is yet wild in the regions 
lying between the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea. Manifestly 
this is a species that has been so long cultivated, and one that 
so easily maintains itself in the wild, that its present range would 
be little guide to its original habitat, so that we cannot say with 
confidence to what country we owe the debt for flax. 

Hemp (Cannabis sativa). This strongest of the fiber plants 
exists in two distinct forms, the male and the female, each a 
separate plant. This, too, is an old friend, dating as a culti- 
vated plant from at least i 500 b.c, or before the Trojan War. 
Hemp is wild from southern Russia in the neighborhood of 
the Caspian, eastward to the desert of Kirghiz, beyond Lake 
Baikal. 1 

Besides the cotton, flax, and hemp we have jute, an old but 
not ancient fiber plant, widely scattered over the world ; also 
manila, which is the trade name for the product of a fibrous 
banana of the Philippines, Musa tcxtilis. Besides these, the 
coconut palm yields a fiber much used in the manufacture of 
matting, and that of another palm is used for the coarser quali- 
ties of brushes, and occasionally for brooms. 

1 The student is referred to " Origin of Cultivated Plants " and to con- 
temporaneous literature for further information upon our fiber plants, whose 
history is one of the most interesting chapters in the development of the wild. 



29S DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Ornamental Plants 

Along with utility goes beauty, and the human animal has 
long surrounded his habit^ition with such flowering and other 
ornamental plants as happened to strike his fancy. The list is 
indefinitely long and the species are exceedingly varied. Whether 
for flower, fruit, or foliage, the number and variety of plants 
that minister to beauty are bewildering, and both are being 
rapidly increased by breeding. 

Here is a world of beauty and of interest, not only to the 
artist but to the breeder, into which we can only glance and 
catch a glimpse in passing. We all admire the grace and fra- 
grance of the rose, as well as its variety of form and color, 
ranging from the stately American Beauty of the hothouse to 
the delicate moss rose of the garden. This admiration is in- 
creased to wonder when we realize that they have all developed 
from the common wild rose that clambers over our fences and 
brightens our hedges in all the eastern United States, and that 
planted a multitude of bright eyes in the western prairies long 
before man was there to see.^ 

There is no more fascinating work than the bringing out of 
new forms of plant beauty, and young men and women who 
have the artistic sense developed, will find much in this realm 
of nature to stimulate to still further appreciation of the beau- 
tiful, and to show what may be done with the materials which 
the All-Father has placed in our hands, and the great principles 
with which he has taught us to work. 

Weeds 

Just as certain species of animals have attached themselves 
to us and our affairs without invitation, and continue without 
welcome, so have certain species of pkuits invaded our fields 
and gardens, quite against our desires and greatly to our 

^ Showing the mistake of the notion that all beauty was made expressly for 
man's enjoyment. 



MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 299 

inconvenience and expense. We call them weeds. ^ Their domes- 
tication is not of our choosing but of their own making, and it 
has come about in any case because their individual require- 
ments fitted almost perfectly with those of some other species 
which we were trying to domesticate and produce in quantity. 

For example, chess {Bromus secalinus) is a plant having the 
same soil and seasonal requirements as wheat, though of a dis- 
tinctly different genus. The seeds are near enough alike, how- 
ever, to be separated with great difficulty ; hence some chess is 
nearly always sown with wheat. The chess plant is much hardier 
and much more prolific ^ than the wheat, so that if the two were 
thrown together, the chess would soon take the ground. 

As it is, if anything happens to the tender wheat, as in winter 
killing, there is generally enough chess at hand to make a 
showing, . even with less than two hundred spears to the stool, 
giving rise to the absurd belief that the wheat has " turned 
to chess." 

Every weed has some natural advantage, generally arising in 
the crop conditions with which it most easily and naturally 
associates, and here is the vulnerable point of attack for its 
extenuation. 

Weeds, of course, came out of the wild, and most of them 
still exist in the wild in the same regions which they infest as 
weeds. This is true of such as cocklebur, Canada thistle, 
quack grass,^ etc., but others, like cockle and chess, are not found 
except in association with growing crops ; that is to say, they 
do not readily escape from cultivation. 

The behavior of a weed upon first introduction is little indi- 
cation of what its subsequent history' will be. Wild lettuce, for 
example, spread over the western United States a few years 

1 The best definition for a weed is " a plant out of place." 

2 The writer once counted two hundred and four species of chess, each 
bearing a full " head " and all springing from a single root originating from a 
single seed. 

3 These weeds, however, are not, in most cases, truly wild, but have been 
" introduced " and afterwards have " run wild " like feral animals. 



300 DOMESTK'AIKI) ANIMALS AND PLAN IS 

ago, to the great alarm of everybody, and nothing seemed able 
to stop it ; but in a very few years it subsided, apparently of its 
own accord, and within a few more was practically extinct. 
Others " come and go " with the seasons, just as white clover 
is abundant in a wet season and then imnoticed perhaps for 
many vears. It is still there, but is inconspicuous until condi- 
tions become peculiarl)- fa\-orable. Still others are always with 
us, alwa\s a menace to the valuable culti\'ated crops, alwavs 
ready to rt)b the land of its fertilitv and its moisture, and the 
farmer of his profits. 

Exercises. 1. Make a list of wild plants in the neighborhood that are 
related to domestieated species. 

2. Discuss the question whether any wild plants ot the neighborhood 
could be made of economic use to man. 

3. Make a herbarium of leguminous plants, taking care to preserve the 
flowers, the fruits, and the tubercles. These latter are difficult to secure. 
If the plant is pulled up, fhey will be stripped off. The plant should be 
carefully lifted out with a spade, and the earth should be removed by gentle 
shaking and then washing in a generous quantity of water. 

4. Secure a small plat or field near the schoolhouse on which to raise 
different varieties for study and comparison. 

5. Compare the pistils and the pollen-bearing parts of corn with those of 
Kafir corn, clover, beans, and alfalfa. 

6. Raise some hemp, in order to note the difference between the " male " 
and the "female" plants. If hops are grown in the neighborhood, note 
same with them. 

7. Write the story of the domestication of the American grape. For data 
see " Evolution of our Native Fruits," by Bailey. 

8. What wild plants in vour neighborhood might, in your judgment, make 
valuable plants in cultivation ? 

References. 1. "Origin of Cultivated Plants" (from which the data of 
this chapter are largely taken). De Candolle. 

2. " Animals and Plants under Domestication " (\'ol. 1, chaps, ix and x). 
Darwin. 

3. " Evolution of our Native Fruits." Hailey. 

4. A good collection of seedsmen's catalogues, which is the best guide 
to new things. 



APPENDIX 



STOCK JUDGING 

To be able to tell at sight a good animal from a poor one is a valu- 
able qualification to the farmer and indispensable to the breeder. It 
is also good practice for the student to learn the art. 

The best way to begin this study is by directing the attention 
definitely to different " points " of the animal and give them careful 
study, one at a time, guided in this study by some recognized standard. 

Such a standard is known as a " scale of points," and to facilitate 
this work some standard scales are given for the students' use. 

In practice these score cards should be copied on sheets and each 
animal " scaled " separately, after which the markings of different 
animals should be compared, as should also the work of different 
students upon the same animal. 

It is for this work that the neighborhood supply of animals should 
be drawn upon, and perhaps nothing that can be done will tend so 
much to bring the .school and the community together. 

Besides all this there is no better way of teaching accuracy of obser- 
vation than by the means of stock judging. The untrained ob.server 
sees the animal as a whole, but the student soon learns to separate 
the individual into separate characters or " points," and he learns 
thereby not only to recognize details, but also that animals, like people, 
may be partly good and partly bad. Altogether this line of work is 
commended to the schools and to the young. 



.id 



.^02 



iK)MEsriCAri:n animals am> im.an is 



STUDENT'S SCORE CARD 

HEAVY HORSES 



Scale of Points 



Age, years 

Height, hands 

Weight, pounds 

Score according to breed 

Form, according to breed, broad, massive, — symmetrical . 

Condition, carrying a good amount of tirm fiesli . . . . 

Quality : bone moderately heavy, clean, tirm, and indicating 
sutlicient substance, tendons well defined, hair and skin 
tine 

Color, according to breed 

Temperament, quiet, yet energetic 

Head, medium in size, not coarse, and showing character . 

Muzzle, fine, nostrils large ; lips thin, even ; teeth sound . 

Eyes, large, full, bright, clear 

Forehead, broad and fidl 

Ears, medium size, pointed ; well carried and not far apart 
Neck, medium length and clean-cut. well muscled; crest 
well developed and nicely arched ; throat latch tine ; wind- 
pipe large ; tapering from shoulder to head, and head 

attached at proper angle 

Shoulder, oblique, long, smooth, and covered with muscle 
extending into back ; withers well finished at the top 

Arm, short, well muscled, elbow lying close to the body . 

Fore legs, viewed in front, a perpendicular line from the 
point of the shoulder shoukl fall upon the center of the 
knee, cannon, pastern, and foot. Krom the side a per- 
pendicular line dropping from the center of the elbow 
joint should fall upon the center of the knee and pastern 
joint and back of the hoof 

Forearm, heavily muscled, long, wide, an<.l tapering from 



elbow to knee 



Knees, large, clean, wide, straight, and strongly supported 

Cannons, short, wide, clean ; tendons large, set well b.ack, 

not tied in below the knee 



Fetlocks, wide, straight, strong, free from puftiness . . . 
Pasterns, strong, of medium length, angle with the ground 

45' 

Feet, straight, medium size, even ; horn dense ; frog large, 

elastic ; bars strong ; sole concave ; heel wide, high ; 

hoof head large 

Chest, deep, low, girth large, width of breast in proportion 

with other parts 

Ribs, long, well sprung .... 

Back, straight, short, broad, well muscled 

Loin, wide, short, thick, and neatly joined to hips . . . 



Perfect 
Score 



Student's 
Score 



STANDARD SCALK OV I'OLN'l'S 



303 



STUDENT'S SCORE CARD 'Continued^ 
HEAVY HORSES ^Continued) 



Scale of Points 



Underline, long, flank low 

Hips, smooth, level, width in proportion with other parts, 
but not prominent 

Croup, long, wide, muscular 

Tail, attached high, well carried, well haired with straight 

and not too coarse hair 

Thighs, long, muscular, thick and wide, well muscled over 



stifle 



Quarters, heavily muscled, deep 

Hind legs, viewed from behind, a perpendicular line from 
the point of the buttock should fall upon the center of 
the hock, cannon, pastern, and foot. From the side a per- 
pendicular line from the hip joint should fall upon the 
center of the foot and divide the gaskin in the middle ; 
and a perpendicular line from the point of the buttock 
should run parallel with the line of the cannon .... 

Gaskins or lower thighs, wide, well muscled 

Hocks, large, strong, clean, and well defined, free from 

pufliness, coarseness, and curbiness 

Cannons, short, broad, flat, and clean, tendons large and set 

back, not too light below the hock 

Fetlocks, large, wide, straight, strong, free from puflfiness 
Pasterns, strong and of medium length and obliquity, not 

so great as fore pasterns 

Hind feet, straight, medium size, even ; smaller, and not so 
round as fore feet ; horn dense ; frog large, elastic ; bars 
strong ; sole concave ; heel wide, high 

Action, walk elastic, quick, balanced ; step long . . . . 

'Jrot rapid, straight, regular, high ; should not wing or 

roll in front, or go wide or too close behind . . . 



Total 



Perfect 
Score 



Student's 
Score 



Corrected 
Score 



Animal 
Student's Name 



IJate 



;o4 



DOMKSriCA'IKI) ANIMALS ANJ) I'LANTS 



STUDENT'S SCORE CARD 
LIGHT HORSES 



Scale of Points 



Perfect 
Score 



Student's 
Score 



Age, years 

Height, hands 

Weight, pounds 

Score according to breed 

Form, according to breed, symmetrical, smooth, and stylish 

Condition, carrying a moderate amount of firm fiesh 
Quality: bone clean, firm, and indicating sufficient sub- 
stance ; tendons well defined ; hair and skin fine 

Color, according to breed 

Temperament, spirited, yet docile 

Head, not too large and showing character, features well de- 
fined and regular 

Muzzle, fine, nostrils large ; lips thin, even ; teeth sound . 

Eyes, large, full, bright, clear 

Forehead, broad and full 

Ears, medium size, pointed, well carried and not far apart 
Neck, rather long, clean-cut, well muscled, tapering from 

shoulder to head and head attached at proper angle ; 

crest well developed and nicely arched ; throat latch fine ; 

windpipe large 

Shoulder, oblique, long, smooth, and covered with muscle 

extending into back ; withers well finished at the top 

Arm, short, well muscled, elbow lying close to the body . 

Fore legs, viewed in front, a perpendicular line from the 
point of the shoulder should fall upon the center of the 
knee, cannon, pastern, and foot. From the side, a perpen- 
dicular line dropping from the center of the elbow joint 
should fall upon the center of the knee and pastern joint 
and back of the hoof 

Forearm, well muscled, medium length, wide and tapering 
from elbow to knee 

Knees, large, clean, wide, straight, and strongly supported 

Cannons, medium length, wide, clean ; tendons large, set 

well back, not tied in below the knee 

Fetlocks, wide, straight, strong, free from puffiness . . . 

Pasterns, strong, of medium length, angle with the ground 

43 

Feet, straight, medium size, even ; horn dense ; frog large, 

elastic ; bars strong ; sole concave ; heel wide, high ; hoof 

head large 

Chest, deep, low, girth large, width of breast according to 

class 

Ribs, long, well sprung 

Back, straight, short, broad, well muscled 

Loin, wide, short, thick and neatly joined to hips 



STANDARD SCALE OF POINTS 



505 



STUDENT'S SCORE CARD (Continued) 
LIGHT HORSES (Continued) 



Scale of Points 



Underline, long 

Hips, smooth, level, width in proportion with other parts, 
but not prominent 

Croup, long, wide, muscular, not drooping 

Tail, attached high, well carried, well haired with straight 

and not too coarse hair .... 

Thighs, long, muscular, thick, and wide, well muscled over 

stifle 

Quarters, heavily muscled 

Hind legs, viewed from behind, a perpendicular line from 
the point of the buttock should fall upon the center of 
the hock, cannon, pastern, and foot. From the side, a per- 
pendicular line from the hip joint should fall upon the 
center of the foot and divide the gaskin in the middle ; 
and a perpendicular line from the point of the buttock 
should run parallel with the line of the cannon . . . . 

Gaskins or lower thighs, long, wide, well muscled . . . 
Hocks, strong, clean, and well defined, free from puffiness, 

coarseness, and curbiness 

Cannons, medium length, broad, flat, and clean ; tendons 

large and set back ; not too light below the hock . . . 

Fetlocks, large, wide, straight, strong, free from puffiness 

Pasterns, strong and of medium length, obliquity not so 
great as fore pasterns 

Hind feet, straight, medium size, even ; smaller, and not so 
round as fore feet ; horn dense ; frog large, elastic ; bars 
strong ; sole concave ; heel wide, high 

Action, walk elastic, quick, balanced ; step long . . . . 

Trot rapid, straight, regular, high ; should not forge, 
wing, or roll in front, or go wide or too close behind 



Total 



Perfect 
Score 



Student's 
Score 



Corrected 
Score 



Animal . . . 

Student's Name 



Date 



'06 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



STUDENT'S SCORE CARD 
DAIRY CATTLE 



Scale of Points 



INDICATING MILKING QUALITIES, THIRTY POINTS 

Udder, lapacidus, lull and attaclu-d hit;h ai iIk- back, 
extending well forward; quarters e\enly dexeloped, 
preferably free from fleshiness (omit for male) . . . 

Teats, uniform, of convenient size and length, placed 
well apart, of nearly equal diameter from base to point, 
free from lumps, warts, extra orifices, or leakage 
throwing clean streams with reasonable pressure 
(rudimentary in male) 

Milk veins, large, tortuous, and iinich hranclied : milk 
wells large 

Rump, broad at both hip and pin bones, indicating pelvic 



capacuy 



Temperament, inlicriled tendency of dairy function . . 
INDICATING FEEDING QUALITIES, THIRTY POINTS 

Barrel, long, deep, full at paunch, with plenty of space 
between last rilj and point of hip 

Bone, medium, as indicated by clean face and legs with 
smooth joints, short cannons, and long, slim tail. Ex- 
treme fineness undesirable 

Withers, narrow, smooth over top, not higher than rump 

Muzzle, wide, full lips 

Face, broad between eyes, flat or dished, not bulging . 

Eye, full, clear, quiet, set well forward, not in side of head 

Neck, medium to thin on top, and fair length (thicker in 
males and crested with age) 

Throat, clean 

Dewlap, light 

Handling, skin medium thick, mellow, loose, not hard or 
papery ; hair fine and soft, not wiry ; inside of ears 

furry : switch long and silky 

INDICATING CONSTITUTION AND GENERAL HEALTH, 
TWENTY-FIVE POINTS 

Chest, deep and full, showing plenty of hmg capacity, 
wide on the floor and full at the elbows 

Legs, straight, neither knock-kneed nor sickle-hocked . 

Back, straight, sometimes drooping with age . . . . 

Pasterns, short, strong, and upright 

General appearance, ilirifty and vigorous 

Carriage, active but not nervous 

SYMMETRY, FIFTEEN POINTS 

The proper balance between the different parts of the 
animal's body, including general neatness and smooth- 
ness of form ; in males greater relative development 
of shoulders, neck, and head 



Perfect 
Score 



Student's 
Score 



Corrected 
Score 



Total 



Other particulars in which cows vary are not listed above 
because their connection with milk production is ques- 
tionable, or at least not understood ; for example, the 
escutcheon, rudimcntaries, color, etc. 



Weight, estimated 

Animal 

Student's Name . . 



pounds ; actual 



pounds. 



Date 



STANDARD SCALE OF POINTS 



307 



STUDENT'S SCORE CARD 
BEEF CATTLE. BREEDING STOCK 



Scale of Points 



Perfect 
Score 



Student's 
Score 



Corrected 
Score 



pounds. 



GENERAL APPEARANCE, FORTY POINTS 

Weight, estimated . . pounds; actual . 

According to age 

Form, straight top line and underline, deep, broad, low- 
set, stylish 

Quality: firm handling; fine hair; pliable skin; dense, 
clean bone ; evenly Heshed without ties or rolls . 

Condition, deep even covering of firm flesh, especially 
in region of valuable cuts 



HEAD AND NECK, SEVEN POINTS 

Muzzle: mouth large ; lips thin ; nostrils large . 

Eyes, large, clear, placid 

Face, short, quiet, expressive 

Forehead, broad, full 

Ears, medium size, fine texture 

Neck, thick, short ; throat clean 



FORE QUARTERS, NINE POINTS 

Shoulder vein, full 

Shoulder, covered with flesh, compact on top, snug 

Brisket, advanced, breast wide 

Dewlap, skin not too loose and drooping .... 
Legs, straight, short, arm full ; shank fine, smooth 

BODY, THIRTY POINTS 

Chest, full, deep, wide ; girth large ; crops full . . 

Ribs, long, arched, thickly fleshed 

Back, broad, straight 

Loin, thick, broad 

Flank, full, even with underline 



HIND QUARTERS, FOURTEEN POINTS 

Hip, smoothly covered : distance apart in proportion 

with other parts 

Rump, long, wide, even ; tail head smooth, not patchy . 

Pin bones, not prominent, far apart 

Thighs, full 

Twist, deep, plump, indicating fleshiness 

Legs, straight, short, shank fine, smooth 



Total 



Animal 
Student's Name 



Date 



:o8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLAN TS 



STUDENT'S SCORE CARD 
BEEF CATTLE. MARKET STOCK 



Standard of Excellence 



pounds ; actual 



pounds. 



Weight, estimated 

According to age 

Form, straight top and underlines, deep, broad, low-set, 
compact, symmetrical 



Quality: hair fine; bone fine but strong: skin pliable: 
mellow, even covering of Arm flesh, especially in region 
of valuable cuts ; absence of ties and rolls 



Condition, prime ; flesh deep : evidence of finish especially 
marked in cod, at tail head, flank, shoulder, and throat : 
absence of bunches, patches, or rolls of fat 

Head, clean, symmetrical; quiet expression; mouth and 
nostrils large ; lips moderately thin ; eyes large, clear, 
placid : face, short : forehead broad, full : ears medium 
size, fine texture 

Neck, thick, short, tapering neatly from shoulder to head ; 
throat clean 

Shoulder vein, full 

Shoulder, well covered with flesh, compact 

Brisket, full, broad, but not too prominent ; breast wide . 

Dewlap, skin not too loose and drooping 

Chest, deep, wide, full 

Crops, full, thick, broad 

Ribs, long, arched, thickly fleshed 

Back, broad, straight, thickly and evenly fleshed .... 

Loin, thick, broad, thickness extending well forward . . 

Flank, full, low, thick 

Hips, smoothly covered; width in proportion with other 
parts, but not prominent 

Rump, long, level, wide and even ; tail head smooth, not 
patchy 

Pin bones, not prominent : width in proportion with other 
parts 



Perfect 
Score 



Thighs, full, fleshed well down to hock .... 
Twist, deep, full ; purse in steers full .... 
Legs, straight, short; arm full ; shank fine, smooth 

Total 

.Animal 

Student's Name 



Student's Corrected 
Score Score 



Date 



STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE 



309 



STUDENT'S SCORE CARD 
FAT HOGS. MARKET STOCK 



Standard of Excellence 



Weight, pounds 

Form, long, deep, broad, low-set, symmetrical, compact, 

standing squarely on legs 

Condition: thrifty, well fleshed, fat but firm 

Quality: hair fine ; bone fine but strong ; skin smooth : even 

covering of firm flesh, free from lumps and wrinkles 

Style, attractive 

Action, spirited, straightforward, regular, free and easy 
Constitution, chest capacious ; brisket advanced and low : 

flanks full and well let down 

Coat, abundant, fine, straight, bright, smooth, evenly dis- 
tributed, lying close to body 

Snout, medium length, not coarse 

Eyes, full, bright, not obscured by wrinkles 

Face, broad between eyes and ears, smooth 

Ears, fine texture, medium size, neatly attached . . . . 
Jowls, smooth, firm, medium size, not pendulous . . . . 
Neck, short, deep, thick, joining head to shoulders smoothly 
Shoulders, deep, full, compact, smooth, not too heavy . . 
Back and loin, long, broad, strong, even width, thickly 

and evenly fleshed 

Sides, long, deep, full, even width, free from wrinkles and 

flabbiness; ribs long, carrying fullness well down . . . 
Belly, straight, even, not flabby, proportionate in width 
Rump, long, wide, even width, thickly and evenly fleshed, 

rounding from loin to root of tail, not too drooping . . 
Hams, broad, especially at upper end, deep, full, well 

fleshed and plump, not too fat 

Legs, straight, strong, tapering, medium length, set well 
apart ; bones smooth : joints clean ; pasterns upright : 
feet medium size, not sprawling, squarely placed . 

Tail, medium in size and length, smooth, tapering, not set 
too low 



Perfect 
Score 



0.5 
0.5 



4 
0.5 



Student's 
Score 



Corrected 
Score 



Total I 



Animal . . . 
Student's Name 



Date 



The preceding score cards are made from the standpoint of utility and 
without reference to breed characters. They are in actual use for class work. 
In addition to this some breeders' associations have adopted a special scale of 
points designed to bring out the distinctive characters or points in the breed. 
Two of the many are here given as .samples. It will be noticed that in these 
latter much attention is given to matters of appearance as distinct from utility. 



3IO DUMESTlCAl'El) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

SCALE OF POINTS FOR JERSEY COWS 

HEAD, SEVEN POINTS COUNTS 

A. Medium size, lean : face dished, broad between eyes and narrow between 

horns 4 

B. Eyes full and placid : horns small to medium, incur\'ing ; muzzle broad, with 

muscular lips ; strong under jaw 3 

NECK, FIVE POINTS 

Thin, rather long, with clean throat ; thin at w-ithers 5 

BODY, THIRTY-THREE POINTS 

A. Lung capacity, as indicated by depth and breadth through body, just back of 

fore legs 5 

B. Wedge-shaped, with deep, large paunch : legs proportionate to size and of fine 

quality 10 

C. Back straight to hip bones 2 

D. Rump long to tail setting and level from hip bones to rump bones .... 8 

E. Hip bones high and wide apart ; loins broad, strong 5 

F. Thighs flat and well cut out 3 

TAIL, TWO POINTS 

Thin, long, with good switch, not, coarse at setting-on 2 

UDDER, TWENTY-EIGHT POINTS 

A. Large size and not fleshy 6 

B. Broad, level, or spherical, not deeply cut between teats 4 

C. Fore udder full and well rounded, running well forward of front teats ... 10 

D. Rear udder well rounded, and well out and up behind S 

TEATS, EIGHT POINTS 

Of good and uniform length and size, regularly and squarely placed S 

MILK VEINS, FOUR POINTS 

Large, tortuous, and elastic 4 



SIZE, THREE POINTS 

Mature cows, 800 to 1000 pounds 



GENERAL APPEARANCE, TEN POINTS 

A symmetrical balancing of all the parts, and a proportion of parts to each other, 
depending on size of animal, with the general appearance of a high-class 
animal, with capacity for food and productiveness at pail 10 

Total 100 



SPECIAL SCALE OF POINTS 311 

SCALE OF POINTS FOR HOLSTEI N-FRI ESIAN COWS 

Points 

Head, decidedly feminine in appearance ; fine in contour 2 

Forehead, broad between the eyes, dishing 2 

Face, of medium length ; clean and trim, especially under the eyes, showing facial 

veins ; the bridge of the nose straight ; the muzzle broad 2 

Muzzle, broad with strong lips i 

Ears, of medium size, and fine texture ; the hair plentiful and soft ; the secretions 

oily and abundant i 

Eyes, large, full, mild, bright . 2 

Horns, small, tapering finely towards the tips, set moderately narrow at base, oval, 

inclining forward, well bent inward, of fine texture, in appearance waxy ... i 

Neck, long, fine and clean at juncture with the head, free from dewlap, evenly 

and smoothly joined to shoulders '. 4 

Shoulders, slightly lower than hips, fine and even over tops, moderatelv broad and 

full at sides 3 

Chest, of moderate depth and lowness, smooth and moderately full in the brisket, 

full in the fore flanks (or through the heart) 6 

Crops, moderately full 2 

Chine, straight, broadly developed, open 6 

Barrel, wedge-shaped, well rounded, with a large abdomen, trimly held up (in 

judging the last item age must be considered) 7 

Loin and hops, broad, level or nearly level between the hook bones, level and 
strong laterally, spreading from chine broadly and nearly level, with hook 
bones fairly prominent 6 

Rump, long and high, broad with roomy pelvis, nearly level laterally, compar- 
atively full above the thurl ' . . . . 6 

Thurl, high, broad -j 

Quarters, deep, straight behind, roomy in the twist, wide and moderately full at 



the sides 



4 



Flanks, deep, comparatively full 2 

Legs, comparatively short, clean and nearly straight, wide apart and firmly and 

squarely set under the body ; feet of medium size, round, solid, and deep . . 4 

Tail, large at base, the setting well back, tapering finely to switch, the end of the 
bone reaching to hocks or below ; the switch full 2 

Hair and handling, hair healthful in appearance, fine, soft, and furrj' ; the skin of 
medium thickness and loose, mellow under the hand ; the secretions oily, 
abundant, and of a rich brown or yellow color 8 

Mammary veins, very large, very crooked (age must be taken into consideration in 
judging of size and crookedness), entering very large or numerous orifices, 
double extension, with special developments such as branches, connections, etc. 10 

Udder, very capacious, very flexible ; quarters even ; nearly filling the space in the 
rear below the twist, extending well forward in front, broad and well held up ; 

teats well formed, wide apart, plumb, and of convenient size 12 

Teats , 2 

Escutcheon, largest, finest 2 

Perfection 100 



GLOSSARY 



In the following glossary of terms used in the text and the references no 
attempt is made to furnish exact definitions. The purpose has been rather to 
supply the secondary-school student with an adequate working idea of the 
meaning of the terms as commonly employed, maintaining at the same time 
scientific accuracy, without aiming to attain that exhaustive discrimination 
which might be demanded by the highly specialized student. 

Accessory chromosome. That particular chromosome which, at least in certain 
species, has its mate in the female but not in the male, and which is therefore 
supposed to be associated with the determination of sex. 

Acquired character. Modification of hereditary characters due to environ- 
ment or habits of life. 

Adaptation. The "' fit " which is brought about between the environment and 
the species. See Natural selection and Survival of the fittest. 

Advanced registry. A registry based on performance and not simply upon 
pedigree. 

Ancestry. Those members of past generations that are related to any given 
individual by descent. 

Average deviation. A mathematical expression measuring variability obtained 
by averaging the deviation of all individuals from the mean of the race or 
population. 

Breed. A definite variety or strain of animal bred to a special type. 

Breeding. The intelligent combining of known blood lines in either animal 
or plant production. Specifically, also, the mating of animals. 

Biophere. A term used by Weismann (pronounced J'isemaii) to denote the 
smallest conceivable unit of living matter. 

Castration. The removal, by the knife, of the testicles of the male, thus pre- 
venting reproduction. 

Character. Any trait, faculty, or physical feature of the individual or species 
that can be identified and more or less accurately described. 

Characters, dominant. The more prominent of two mutually exclusive char- 
acters, and which therefore characterize three fourths of the offspring of hybrid 
parents. 

Characters, latent. Those racial characters that remain undeveloped and 
therefore unnoticed in a given individual, but which may appear in his 
descendants because belonging to the ancestry. 

Characters, recessive. The less conspicuous of two characters which are 
mutually exclusive, and which therefore characterize but one fourth of the 
offspring of hybrid parents. 



GLOSSARY 313 

Chromomeres. See Chromatin granules. 

Chromosomes. The dots, rods, rings, or other bodies that exist in definite 
numbers in the nucleus and that derive their name from the readiness with 
which they assume color under the various staining reagents employed by 
biologists to bring out structural differences under the microscope. 

Chromatin granules. The minute granular masses of which the chromosomes 
appear to be composed ; synonymous with chromomeres. 

Cross breeding. Synonymous with crossing. 

Crossing. The fertilizing of one species by the male of another species, 
race, or variety. Synonymous with cross breeding. 

Cytoplasm. The cell contents that surround the nucleus. 

Degenerate. The individual which has inherited in strong degree the worst 
characters of his race with few or none of the best, though he may have one 
or more exceptional faculties. 

Determinant. Such an association of ids (Weismann) as may be able to fix 
the character of a part in its development. 

Development. Progressive change ; specifically the appearance of racial 
characters in the individual as growth proceeds. 

Differentiation. The appearance of distinctly differing organs and parts 
during and after embryonic development. 

Dominant characters. See Characters, dominant. 

Dwarf. The individual in which the process of growth has been arrested 
abnormally early. See Giant. 

Embryo. The fertilized ovum after growth and differentiation begin. 

Embryonic development. Growth and differentiation of the embryo. 

Environment. The conditions of life as a whole, both good and bad, that sur- 
round the individual or the species, by which it may be either benefited or 
oppressed, but with which it must live and compete. 

Eugenics. The doctrine that human beings should be well born by attention 
in marriage to the well-known facts of heredity. 

Evolution. The theory that species originate by development from other 
and preexisting species by means of more or less gradual modifications either 
through crossing or the influence of the environment, or both ; over against the 
older theory that each species was specially and separately created, and that 
it remains unchanged and unchangeable. 

Fetus. The more or less perfectly developed embryo before birth. 

Gamete. The fertilized ovum or ovule. 

Genetics. The science of breeding from the standpoint of the transmission 
of hereditary characters without regard to the influence of environment. 

Germ plasm. Reproductive or sex cells in general, without reference to 
sex. 

Germinal matter. Synonymous with germ plasm. 

Giant. The individual in which cell division and growth have proceeded 
beyond the normal. See Dwarf. 



314 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 

Grading. Breeding scrub or unpedigreed stock to registered males. 

Heredity. The transmission of racial characters from ancestry to offspring. 

Hybrid. The offspring of hybridization, carrying the blood of two or more 
species or races. 

Hybridizing. That kind of crossing in which the male and female are of 
different species or of distinctly different races. 

Id. A term used by Weismann to denote an orderly and definite association 
of biopheres operating together towards the determination of a definite 
character. 

Latent characters. See Characters, latent. 

Mammals. Certain species of higher animals in which the fertilized ovum is 
retained and embryonic development takes place inside the body of the mother 
until birth ; specifically, those species which suckle the young. 

Maturation. The final stages of division in sex cells just before attaining the 
conditions suitable for fertilization. 

Mean. The average. 

Mendel's law. The law which states the way in which racial characters will 
be distributed among the offspring of hybrid parents. 

Methodical selection. The imitation by man of the operation of natural selec- 
tion as he attempts to secure the favorable development of especially desirable 
characters in domesticated animals and plants. 

Mimicry. The resemblance of one species to another or to some natural 
object in such a way as to be protective against possible enemies. 

Mitosis. The process of cell division in ordinary growth. See also 
Maturation. 

Mode. The most common or typical value of a racial character. 

Mutant. An individual or strain essentially new and produced spontaneously 
by nature through crossing, bud variation, or otherwise ; synonymous with the 
older term " sport." 

Mutation. The production of mutants or sports, which see. 

Natural selection. The oppressive effect of the environment by which many 
individuals are unable to endure, and which therefore operates to destroy a 
large proportion of the race. Those which are able to endure the hard fea- 
tures of the environment not only survive, but, prospering by other conditions, 
are said to be selected in this natural way. 

Nucleus. That part of the cell which contains the chromosomes, which 
takes the lead in cell division, and which seems normally to be equally divided 
between the daughter cells, whether in ordinary growth or in maturation. 

Ovary. The organ in which the ova or female reproductive cells develop. 

Oviporous. Said of species which lay eggs in which, like birds, the em- 
bryonic development takes place outside the body of the mother by the 
process of hatching. 

Ovule. The female sex cell of the higher plants, which, upon fertilization by 
the pollen cell, is capable of developing into a new plant. 



GLOSSARY 315 

Ovum. The animal female sex cell, which, when fertilized by the male sex 
cell, is capable of developing into a new individual. Plural, ova. 

Pedigree. The ancestry of an animal or plant; especially the list of the 
names and registry numbers. 

Pedigree register. The official publication in which pedigrees are printed, 
each breed having its own. 

Physiological unit. A term used by Galton and others to denote those 
ultimate particles of living matter that determine characters, covering the 
same general conception that later was covered by Weismann with his more 
minute distinctions of biopheres, ids, and determinants. 

Pollen. The male sex cells of higher plants. 

Pollen grain. A single cell of pollen. 

Progression. Advance as measured by the ancestry. 

Protective coloring. Any color effects which, by mimicry or otherwise, make 
the animal less conspicuous. 

Protoplasm. Living matter in general. 

Pure breeding. Mating only registered animals together. Coming to be used 
also in plant breeding. 

Pure bred. An animal or plant whose ancestry is registered on both sides. 

Recessive characters. See Characters, recessive. 

Reduction. The halving of the characteristic number of chromosomes dur- 
ing the process of maturation. 

Registration. The filing for print with the officers of a breeding association 
of the pedigree of a pure-bred animal. 

Regression. The tendency of individuals toward the mean of the race, 
whether the immediate parentage be better or inferior to the average. 

Reversion. An instance in which the offspring resembles a remote ancestor 
more closely than it does the immediate parent. 

Score card. A scale of points upon which breeds or individuals may be 
assessed and judged, character by character and point by point. 

Scrub. An animal that has little or no pure blood in its ancestry. 

Selection. In general, the limiting of reproduction to certain favored indi- 
viduals, either by nature or by man. 

Selection, methodical. The selective process as carried on by man in order 
to accomplish changes especially desired by him. See Methodical selection. 

Selection, natural. The selective process as determined by the environment. 
See Natural selection. 

Spaying. The removal of the ovaries of the female, thus preventing 
reproduction. 

Spermatozoon. The male sex cell among higher animals. Plural, spermatozoa. 

Sport. See Mutant. 

Standard deviation. A mathematical measure of variability the same as 
average deviation, except that the several deviations are squared in determin- 
ing its value. See Average deviation. 



3l6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLAN'JS 

Survival of the fittest. The triumph of those individuals which are able to 
compete successfully with the environment. 

Testis. The organ in which the spermatozoa or male reproductive cells 
develop. Synonymous with testicle. Plural, testes. 

Thoroughbred. The name of the English running horse, often improperly 
used for pure bred. 

Thremmatology. The science and practice of improving domesticated ani- 
mals and plants. 

Throwing back. Synonymous with reversion. 

Type. The most usual form of a character or of an individual ; also used for 
the form that is desired in attempted improvement. 

Unit character. The smallest element that physiologically tends to behave 
more or less independently in the formation of plant or animal characters. 

Unregistered stock. Animals that are undoubtedly of pure breeding but 
whose pedigrees have been neglected or lost. 

Use and disuse. The effect of use or disuse upon the development of an 
hereditary character and its consequent retention or loss bv the individual 
or race. 

Uterus. The female part in which the embryo develops and from which it 
separates at birth. Synonymous with womb. 

Variation. The fact that individuals of the same race and breeding are not 
alike, but differ more or less among themselves. 

Zygote. That portion of the gamete which determines a unit character. 



INDEX 



Adaptation, accidental nature of, 8i ; 
not perfect, 87 

Advanced registry, 183 

Agriculture, beginnings of, 23 

Albino deer, 102* 

Albinos, 151 

Alfalfa, inoculation for, 261 ; origin 
of, 260 

Alpaca, 238 

Ancestral heredity, law of, 166 

Animals, as a means of recreation, 8 ; 
as sources of clothing, 4 ; as sources 
of food, 3 ; as sources of raw ma- 
terial, 8 ; as sources of shelter, 5 ; 
cost of maintaining, 35 ; domesti- 
cated, need of improvement in, 35 ; 
feral, 18; further improvement 
needed, 37 ; medicinal properties 
of, 9 ; not used in domestication, 
30 ; service of, 28 ; service of, too 
costly, 39 ; systematic improve- 
ment of, 178 

Apple, origin of, 267 

Arrested development, 132 

Ass, 215; wild, 22 

Aurochs, 16, 225, 226 

Average deviation, 109 

Aztecs, 247 ; hunts of, 24 ; semido- 
mestication by, 24 

Babiroussa, 233 

Baby beef, 196 

Bailey, " Survival of the Unlike," 97 

Banff, head of herd at, 223* 

Banteng, 221 

Barley, origin of, 245 

" Battle in the Meadows," 63 

Beal, book on grasses, 255 

Bean, origin of, 263 ; soy, 265 

Beef, baby, 196 

Betel nut, 295 

Bighorn, 227 

Bison, American, 31*, 55*, 223* 



Bloodhound, 209 

Blue grass, origin of, 254 

Boar, wild, 16, 231 

Bones, splint, 213 

Bos frontosits, 225 

Bos iongifrons, 225 

Bos priinigenus, 220, 224, 226 

Breed, choosing of, 194 ; differences 

slight, 195 
Mreeding, mixed, 186; power of, to 

modify type, 93-95; pure, 187; 

rate of improvement by, 190; 

systems of, 186 
Brilliant, 6* 
Broom corn, 252 
Buckwheat, origin of, 253 
Buffalo Bill, 224 
Buffalo, of Asia, 222; service of, 6; 

water, 218* 
Burro, 7* 
Bush pig, 233 

Camel, 238 ; service of, 7 

Canada thistle, 299 

Castle, W. E., work illustrated, 147, 
149 

Cat, European and American, 234* ; 
origin of, 233 ; relatives of, 234 ; 
true nature of, 235 

Cattle, humped, 219; Indian, 219; 
of Chillingham Park, 225 ; Short- 
horn, 11; Teeswater, 178; wild 
White, 225 

Celery compound, 294 

Cells, division of, 131 

Character, single, variability of, 105 

Characters, behavior of, in trans- 
mission, 141 ; both good and bad 
transmitted, 171; correlation of, 
loi ; developed and latent, 100; 
dominant and recessive, loi, 146; 
how transmitted, 121 ; individual 
possesses those of the race, 99 ■ 



1 References to figures are indicated by an asterisk, as 189*. 
317 



i8 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



latent, loo; lost. 102; new, 103; 
tend to combine in definite propor- 
tions, 141 ; that do not blend. 144 

Cherry, origin of, 271 

Chess, 299 

Chillingham cattle, 225 

Chromosomes, 125, 127 

Cipo, 25 

Civilization, aided by slavery, 27 ; 
requires domestication, 26 

Clothing, sources of, 4 

Clover, kinds of, 258 ; origin of, 259 ; 
sweet, 261 

Coal, source of, 5 

Coca, 294 

Coefficient of variability, 112 

Cocklebur, 299 

Collie and coyote contrasted, 22* 

Color, causes of, 77 » 

Competition greatest between indi- 
viduals of the same species, 61 

Corn, broom, 252 ; Indian, origin of. 
246; meaning of term. 246; polli- 
nation of, injured by rain, 54 

Corncob, hand-shaped, 13S* 

Correlation of characters, loi 

Cotton, 296 

Cow, choice butcher, 189* ; medium 
butcher, 191* 

Cowpea, 265 

Coyote and collie contrasted, 22* 

Creation not finished, 12 

Crossing, 187 ; in plant improvement. 
199; may give a pure race, 148 

Curve of frequency, plotting of, 106 

Dachshund, 209 

Dane, 210* 

Darwin, "Origin of Species," 52 

Davenport, C. B., " Statistical Meth- 
ods," 120 

Deer, albino, 102 

Degeneracy, 163 

Dehorning, 91 

Design in nature, 77 

Development, 128; arrested, 132; 
going wrong, 130 

Deviation, average, 109; standard, 
1 1 1 

Differentiation, 128 

Dingo, 208* 

Distribution, 106; sample of, 118, 
119 

Dog, contrasted with wolf, 22*; origin 
of, 22, 207 



Domesticated animals and plants, 
need of improvement in, 35 

Domesticated races, come from the 
wild, 14; variation of, 11; where 
originated. 1 1 ; wild relatives of, 1 2 

Domestication, a gradual process, 16. 
32 ; first steps of, in the hunt, 24 ; 
in civilization, 26; for additional 
food, 22; for clothing and shelter. 
25; for the hunt, 21; generally 
means improvement, 14, 35 ; his- 
tor)^ of, how known, 17; often 
means readjustment, 91 ; result of 
necessity, 20 ; unwelcome, 239 

Dominant characters, loi, 146; be- 
havior of, 200 

Dorset, 227* 

Duck, origin of, 236 

Dwarfing, 131 

Environment, adds no unit charac- 
ters, 174; and heredity, 171 ; func- 
tion of, 173; mistaken estimate of. 
171 ; modifications due to, 175 

Eskimo dog, 216 

Feeder, choice. 187* ; inferior, 185* 

Feral as distinct from wild, iS 

Fertilization, 124 

Festucas, the, 255 

Fittest, survival of, 64 

Flax, 296 

Food, competition for, 54 ; sources of, 3 

Frequency curve, plotting of, 106 

Fruits, origin of, 267 

Galla ox, 222 

Galton, studies, 155 

Gas, source of, 5 

Gaur, 219, 220* 

Gayal, 220 

Giants, 132 

(joat, origin of, 231 

Goose, origin of, 236 

Grading, 187 

Grape, wild, 1 5* 

Grasses, book on, by ]>eal. 225; mis- 
cellaneous, 255; origin of, 254 

Grouping, suggestions as to, 114 

Growth, 128; as determined by leaf 
surface, 61 ; termination of, 129 

Growths, abnormal, 140 

Guinea fowl, 238 

Guinea pigs, behavior of, under 
Mendel's law, 147-149 



INDEX 



319 



TIachwalt, " Dogcraft," 97 

Hand, double, 136 

Heat, sources of, 5 

Hemp, 297 

Hen, origin of, 235 ; relatives of, 236 

Heredity, 154; and environment, 

171; complex nature of, 154; in 

stature, 156; law of, 166 
Hibernation, 91 
Hindu cattle, 219 
Horn, compounded, 138 
Horny growth, abnormal, on deer, 

139* 
Horse, evolution of, 214; origin of, 

22, 211; prehistoric, 212*; service 

of, 7 
Hudson Bay Company, 25 
Hybridization complicated, 150 

Improvement complicated, by hybrid- 
ization, I 50 ; by crossing, i 50 ; by 
domestication, 14; by selection, 
igS; herd and breed, 192; rate of, 
190 ; rational, 193 

Indian cattle, 219 

Indians, dogs of, 22 ; food of, 23 

Individual, a composite, 169; chance 
of resembling a particular ances- 
tor, 168 

Inoculation, described, 258; for 
alfalfa, 261 

Jersey, 47*, 226* 

Kitchen middens, 17 

Law of ancestral heredity, 166; of 
the wild, 20 

Legumes, inoculation for, 258 ; 
special meaning of, 257 

Lentil, 262 

Lettuce, wild, 299 

Life, abundance of, 50 ; length of, sig- 
nificant, 69; sacred character of, 29 

Light, sources of, 5 

Llama, 238 

Longevity, figure of Old Uick, 89 

Lupine, 265 

Man, dependence of, upon animal 
labor, 6 ; primitive, disadvantages 
of, 20; ingenuity of, 21 ; need for 
clothing and shelter, 25; need for 
labor, 26 

Market, knowledge of, necessary, 197 



Market classes and grades, 196 

Mean, 107 

Measurements, suggestions as to 

taking, 1 13 
Medicines, sources of, 9 
Mediocrity the common lot, 157 
Mendel's law, few individuals pure 

under, 149; illustrated, 147, 149; 

of hybrids, 145; new races by, 148 
Millet, origin of, 253 
Mimicry, 75 ; butterfly and leaf, 76* 
Monkeys, limit of intelligence of, 21 
Mule, 216 
Mumford, illustrations from, 185, 187, 

189, 191, 192, 194, 196 
Mutants, i 50 
Mutation, 150 
Mystery confined to the unfamiliar, 78 

Natural conditions, selective effect 

of, 53 
Natural selection, 63 ; always at work, 

93 ; and progressive development, 

83 ; effects of, 83 ; results of, not 

always useful to us, 90 
Nature, design in, 77 ; impartiality of, 

71 

Nectarine and peach, 151 

Nitrogen, cost of, 258; secured by 
legumes, 257 

Numbers, significance of, 69 ; sugges- 
tions as to, 117 

Oats, origin of, 249 

Offspring, compared with the parent, 
154-160; compared with the parent 
and remote ancestors, 166; excep- 
tional, and its parentage, 163; not 
like parent, 157; of exceptional 
parent, 159 

Old Dick, 89* 

Opium poppy, 294 

Orchard grass, 255 

Ovule, function of, 125 

Ovum, function of, 125 

Ox, endurance of, 28; origin of, 219; 
service of, 6 

Pack mule, service of, 7 

Parent, compai^d with offspring, 
154-160; exceptional, his off- 
spring, 159 

Park cattle, 225 

Passenger pigeon, 93* 

Pea, origin of the, 264 



320 DOMKSriCATKl) ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



Peach, and nectarine, 151 ; origin of, 
271 

Peacock, 23S 

I'ear, origin of, 269 

Pearson, work of, 167 

Pedigree registers, 179 

Penholder, 133 

I'etroleum, source of, 5 

Pig, bush, 233 ; origin of, 231; rela- 
tives of, 231 

Pigeons, varieties of, 93-95 

Pine, Jack, 54 

Plant breeding, records in, 202 

Plant improvement, Mendel's law in, 
199 

Plant lice, increase of, 51 

Planting, systems of, 202 

Plants as sources of clothing, 4 ; as 
sources of food, 3 ; as sources of 
heat and light, 5 ; as sources of 
raw material, 8 ; as sources of 
shelter, 5 ; cultivated, origin of, 
241 ; domesticated, need of im- 
provement in, 35; improvement 
of, 19S; medicinal properties of, 
9; ornamental, 298 

Plow, the primitive, 26 

Plum, origin of, 269 

Plumb, Types and Breeds of Farm 
Animals, 97 

Pointer, 209 

Pollen, function of, 125 

Poodle, 209 

I'oppy, opium, 294 

Prairie chicken, 224 

Prime steer, 194* 

I'rogression, 160 

Protective coloring, 74 

Pure bred, 178 

Python, legs of, 133 

Quagga, 217 

Recessive characters, behavior of, 

loi, 146, 200 
Redtop, origin of, 254 
Registry, advanced, 183 
Reversion, 163 
Rice, origin of, 250 
Room, competition for, 58 
Rye, origin of, 249 

Samples, suggestions as to taking, 

•'7 
Scrubs, 185 



Selection, effect of, in making a " fit," 
85; effect of, upon the individual, 
84 ; effect of, upon the species, 84 ; 
improvement by, 19S; individual 
and the race contrasted, 85; our 
standards different from those of 
nature, 88 ; power of, to modif\- 
type, 93-95 ; the individual and the 
race, 66 

Selective effect of natural conditions, 

53 
Setter, 209 
Sheep, breeds of, 230 ; domesticated, 

229* ; fat-tailed, 230 ; origin of, 

227 ; relatives of, 229; wild, 228 
Shelter, sources of, 5 
Shorthorn cattle, origin of, 1 1 
Silk, elongated, 123* 
Sir Donald of Banff, 223* 
Sires, source of, 192 
Six Nations, 247 ; civilization of the, 

17 ; food of, 23 
Slavery, civilizing effect of, 27 
Sorghum, origin of, 251 ; strains of, 

251 

Soy bean, 265 

Spermatozoon, function of, 125 

Splint bones, 213 

Standard deviation, 1 1 1 

Statistical studies, advantages of, 118 

Stature, table of, 156 

Steer, baby beef, 196*; common 
rough, 192*; prime, 194* 

Struggle for existence, 52 

Sugar cane, origin of, 252 

Survival of the fittest, 64 ; signifi- 
cance of numbers, vigor, length of 
life, 69 ; significance of weapons, 

71 
Swan, 238 
Sweet clover, 261 

Tarpan, 211 

Thistle, Canada, 299 

Thoroughbred, 179 

Timothy, origin of, 254 

Tobacco, 295 

Toltecs, 247 

Transmission, machinery of. 122; of 
unit characters, 121; table of 
stature, i 56 

Turkey, 224 ; origin of, 237 ; rela- 
tives of, 237 

Type modified by selection, 93 

Types, 1 06 



INDEX 



Unit characters, 98; misplaced, 13S; 

species composed of, 98 
Unused materials, 30 
Urus, 225 

X'ariability, coefficient of, 112; eco- 
nomic significance of, 44 ; from 
type, 109; in a single character, 47; 
in milk production, 40; in pigeons, 
93-95; of a single character, 105 

Variation of domesticated races, 1 1 

Vetch, 264 

Vigor, significance of, 69 



Wart hog, 233 



Way of the wild, 50 

Weapons, defensive, significance 



Weeds, 298 

Weeping habit, 151 

Wheat of lake dwellers, 265 ; ori- 
gin of, 242 ; strains of, 243 

Wild ass, 22 

Wild boar, 16, 231 

Wild grape, 15* 

Wild lettuce, 299 

Wild white cattle, 225 

Wolf, contrasted with dog, 22 ; domes- 
tication of, 13*, 21; of South Amer- 
ica, 208 

Women, primitive, hard lot of, 27 

Vak, 221* 



f of, 71 Zebra, 217 



OCT IS' 11^'^^ 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
^^ 19 1910 



